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25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

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Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#21

Post by cowpig »

snvzz wrote: post #7
BrianOnHN wrote: post #2

> I just learned from a colleague and it was confirmed by every student I asked, that 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7X/week (not prescribed). And 5-10% do the same w/Modafinil or Armodafanil; 30-35% of students are on amphetamine Modafinil isn't an amphetamine. Source is seemingly "anecdata." And this was posted on Twitter. Probably not much to see here other than some outrage for attention.

>Modafinil isn't an amphetamine. Yeah, it isn't. It's a nootropic like caffeine. Similar effects, lasts longer, doesn't create a dependence. It's arguably better than caffeine, and I can understand its use. Amphetamine being popular like that is, however, insanity.

Isn't the definition of a nootropic a drug taken for the purposes of cognitive enhancement?

So adderall is both an amephetamine and a nootropic?

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#22

Post by itsoktocry »

0x_rs wrote: post #8

This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless if not to bring the topic in question. However, it sure is concerning that many consider abusing prescription drugs with possibly severe, long lasting side effects to attempt to improve studying effectiveness (or because of self diagnosed ADHD and the likes..). It may become another drug epidemic, if it's not too late already. Misinformation and dubio…

>This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless

How else would you propose answering the question, besides asking people?

Election polling is also "anecdotal".

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#23

Post by hn8788 »

nso wrote: post #5

Could anyone here tell us about their experience with "study drugs"? When did this start to become a phenomenon, because it certainly was not in the time and place I studied.

I'm prescribed ritalin, and the best way I can describe it is that it makes me not get bored while doing something. It doesn't make me feel "focused", but I also don't feel the urge to do anything else. The main downside with it is that you still have to choose to pay attention to the correct thing, otherwise you can get less work done because you ended up spending 2 hours reading about Godzilla instead of doing what you were supposed to.

I haven't found it to be physically addictive, and don't experience any crash or withdrawal if there's a gap when getting my prescription filled. I think it can be mentally addictive though, because once I became able to study and communicate the same way my peers do, I definitely miss the benefits when I don't have it.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#25

Post by dcolkitt »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #3

Are there any studies speculating on long term health effects of kids being addicted to low grade amphetamines? This is a new enough phenomenon that I don’t think there are sufficient data to draw definitive conclusions from.

> This is a new enough phenomenon

This is a common misconception. Amphetamine was used to treat childhood ADHD going back to the 1930s. (Not to mention that amphetamine was widely used to treat sinus congestion and allergies in everyone, including children.) Medical amphetamine usage was significantly higher in the 1950s and 1960s than today. We’ve been on a long term secular decline in amphetamine usage (along with caffeine, nicotine and other stimulants).

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#26

Post by padastra »

We should apply a high degree of emotional moderation, if not actual moderation, to outrage-generating anecdata. Sometimes it gives insights into society in a way that data does not capture or for which data is not available (e.g. organized retail theft in SF, or the difficulty of getting an abortion in an otherwise 'legal' state), but oftentimes it just serves to trigger emotional responses and invite conflict (see https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/too-good-to-check-a-pl...).

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#27

Post by fny »

For anyone who cares, here are the official statistics.

> Among U.S. adults, 6.6% (annual average) used prescription stimulants overall; 4.5% used without misuse, 1.9% misused without use disorders, and 0.2% had use disorders. [0]

With that as a prior, this anecdata seems far off unless there's something horribly wrong at Stanford.

Practically, I'm not sure where kids are getting this stuff to supply amphetamine at a 1-7 rate, unless they're buying straight up meth. I'd be more inclined to believe 25% have taken it once a semester or in their careers, but weekly?

[0]: https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.20...

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#28

Post by potatoman22 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #22
0x_rs wrote: post #8

This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless if not to bring the topic in question. However, it sure is concerning that many consider abusing prescription drugs with possibly severe, long lasting side effects to attempt to improve studying effectiveness (or because of self diagnosed ADHD and the likes..). It may become another drug epidemic, if it's not too late already. Misinformation and dubio…

> This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless How else would you propose answering the question, besides asking people? Election polling is also "anecdotal".

I think if we knew more about the sample size and data collection process this could be less anecdotal

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#29

Post by ZeroGravitas »

itsoktocry wrote: post #22
0x_rs wrote: post #8

This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless if not to bring the topic in question. However, it sure is concerning that many consider abusing prescription drugs with possibly severe, long lasting side effects to attempt to improve studying effectiveness (or because of self diagnosed ADHD and the likes..). It may become another drug epidemic, if it's not too late already. Misinformation and dubio…

> This figure provided is wholly anecdotal and pretty much worthless How else would you propose answering the question, besides asking people? Election polling is also "anecdotal".

Election polling is not anecdotal.

There's a range of things you need to do to turn asking people into data successfully.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#30

Post by FooBarBizBazz »

Apparently we have constructed a society in which everyone, including children, has to spend all day doing things they can't care about without pharmaceutical help.

When this last happened under the Qin dynasty, it ended in the Taiping Rebellion, and produced nothing of value except those little canned oranges.

I hear pornographic performers are on Viagra too.

Meanwhile nobody actually has children, and CO2 PPM keeps going up and up and up.

What the fuck is everyone doing?

Just going through the motions on pills, while our intrinsic motivations scream at us that we're supposed to be doing something else.

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