Think Prescription Stimulants Like Adderall Improve Focus? They Don’t

New research finds people who misuse prescription stimulants to study may feel more energetic, but they aren’t actually getting a “brain boost.” College students may want to think twice before taking prescription stimulants to help them study. Getty Images Prescription drugs like Adderall, commonly prescribed to treat people living with conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), also have a history of being misused by people without such conditions who are seeking a “brain boost.” It’s a growing issue in the United States, particularly among young college students. But while taking prescription stimulants to study might make students feel like they’re getting more done, these medications ultimately offer more drawbacks than advantages. Researchers with several University of California campuses wanted to see whether or not using common “study drugs” — namely Adderall — actually help people retain the information they’re absorbing while under the drug’s influence. Researchers tested and measured what short- and long-term effects these prescription medications had on adults. They recruited 43 people, ages 18 to 35, for a study at UC Irvine’s Sleep and Cognition Lab. At the start, they tested the participants’ working memory and attention by having them do many things at once, like remembering and manipulating a set of letters while performing simple math equations, then regurgitating the letters they remembered. Sara Mednick , PhD, the study’s co-author and UCI associate professor of cognitive sciences and director of the campus’s sleep lab, told Healthline the tests were meant to mimic what the human brain typically endures, like remembering a phone number while doing other tasks. “There’s a specific ability we have to keep information in our heads while we’re doing other things,” she said. Their experiments started with a placebo pill and, at a later date, with 20 milligrams of a drug […]

Click here to view full article