Adderall:  The College Students Choice of Drug

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder is a neurologically based behavioral disorder that causes children and adults to not be able to pay attention, hyperactive, and impulse actions.  Patients whose brains are afflicted with ADHD are due to a malfunction in the frontal cortex.  The frontal cortex is involved in executing functions such as reasoning, planning, focusing, and problem solving.  The neurotransmitter, dopamine, is a very important neurotransmitter in the frontal cortex.  In ADHD patients, there is a dopamine deficient. There are many cases where ADHD causes many students academic troubles, however, there are many college students who say they are ADHD just so they are prescribed Adderall.  Adderall is a drug that is a combination of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine and works as a reuptake inhibitor for dopamine and norepinehrine.  This drug is used for patients with ADHD to help them perform in their daily activities.  For a person whose frontal cortex is working correctly and take Adderall, they feel more motivated and focused to do the tasks in front of them.  With that said, it is a college students miracle drug when they have an all-nighter looming ahead of them.

However, students that take this drug occasionally will become more dependent on it and will lead to addiction.  There are many serious side effects from this drug such as anorexia, chronic thirst, sleep disorders, and mood swings.  For those who use it for an extended time period, may go through a state of depression and amphetamine psychosis. 

As you can see, Adderall may give a student who does not suffer from ADHD an edge on all the other students, but what they don’t know is that they are walking a slippery path that can easily lead to addiction.  I believe that doctors should be more careful when prescribing this drug and to raise awareness on the side affects of this drug.