Jack Kerouac did it. So did Johnny Cash. And most likely, so are a handful of people sitting around you at College Library. Taking amphetamines such as Adderall and Ritalin to intensify focus and concentration may be nothing new, but recent side effects experienced by some users have resulted in more dramatic calls to action than in the past.
In recent months, a board of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration strongly suggested that black-box\ warning labels, the FDA's most serious warning, be applied to the pill bottles of Adderall IR and Adderall XR, along with other name-brand prescription drugs like Ritalin and Concerta, stimulants most commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Adderall IR and Adderall XR—two different types of the most popular prescription amphetamine—were pulled from the Canadian market for the majority of 2005. By February 2006, several U.S. psychiatrists and health practitioners followed this lead, bringing concerns to the FDA. With one abstention, the panel produced an unexpected, unanimous vote to change the warnings placed on the bottles and the information given to people recieving the pills.
According to The New York Times, much of this rising concern stems from the dramatic increase in the number of prescriptions for these drugs in recent years—369% between 1992 and 2002, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse—and a consequent increse in their recreational use among college students. A study released in February by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found 80 percent of ADHD drug misusers to be between the ages 12 and 25.
However, the FDA has taken no action yet, and the prospects for future changes seem bleak. The sale of stimulant drugs has resumed in Canada, and U.S. health practioners, despite the worry, continue to prescribe them because of their high levels of success in treating ADHD.
For most UW-Madison students who use the drugs for non-medical reasons, the warnings have had a similar lukewarm effect.
""I would definitely not increase the amount I was using after hearing that,"" said one UW-Madison sophomore who wished to remain anonymous, ""but I think I would keep on taking it in the amount that I have been—about once or twice a year ... [if] I have a night where I have a paper or something due.""
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