Short Description:

One-Fifth of Ivy League Students Have Misused Stimulants

Background:

A recent study found that 18% of Ivy League students have used stimulants to improve academic performance, according to information scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Vancouver, BC, in May.

When broken down by college year, about 25% of juniors reported misusing stimulants at least once for academic reasons. More than half of those who reported having ever misused a stimulant had done so four or more times.

According to the study, which surveyed 616 Ivy League college students who were not being treated for ADHD, those who both played varsity sports and belonged to fraternities or sororities were most likely to have misused stimulants. Most often students used stimulants to write an essay or study for an exam—time-consuming and concentration-intense activities that may be even more difficult for overextended students like those mentioned previously.

When surveyed about perceived prevalence, students who themselves had misused stimulants estimated much higher prevalence of misuse among college students than who had not misused a stimulant.

Overall, 41% of students viewed using a stimulant for academic performance enhancement as “cheating.” However, only 18% of previous users thought it was cheating, vs. 46% of students who had never misused a stimulant (Colineri et al, http://bit.ly/1ish9Ih).