Kingson Man: The doping scandal in your biology class
Kingson Man: Unknown UnknownsApril 3rd, 2007
The numbers are stark: 3 percent of undergrads on this campus have been prescribed stimulants for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Another eight percent of students have abused those prescription drugs illicitly. Somewhere along the way, these prescription drugs find their way from the hands of legitimate ADHD patients to those of psychostimulant abusers, many of whom use them as study aides.
The less-charged, technical name for this kind of trafficking of prescriptions is "diversion." But as the results of the most recent Student Life Survey of undergraduates at the University of Michigan showed, the phenomenon of trafficking study drugs on campus is large enough to merit serious attention.
In writing up the results of their 2005 study, directors Sean McCabe and Carol Boyd of the Substance Abuse Research Center quoted a student admitting that "getting Adderall and Ritalin are probably easier than getting alcohol on this campus."
In four years on this campus, I haven't encountered that degree of availability - but as the study showed, prevalence and the use of study drugs varies significantly by social circle. Simply put, you are more likely to use study drugs depending on who you study with.
The researchers' statistical analyses highlighted several risk factors. Membership in a fraternity or sorority was found to significantly increase the risk of abuse. Intriguingly, other factors were Jewish religious affiliation and high family household income.
Prescription painkillers were also found to be abused in higher rates among the white and affluent ranks of the Greek system. It's an uncomfortable stereotype to confront - rich frat dudes palming off pills to each other - but the survey data present a starting point for further targeted research into the phenomenon.
Most of the illicit trafficking was, predictably, conducted through networks of friends. So the tightly woven groups of Greek brothers and sisters may simply be a more efficient distribution channel.
But other ways of obtaining the drugs - via prescription from a doctor - are more troubling. Savvier students study up on the lists of diagnostic symptoms that the doctors themselves use. Come appointment day, they do their best impressions of an Woody Allen character.
Perhaps the Oscars should include a category for best performance in the role of an Adderall user.
Physicians are trained to spot drug-seeking behavior, but not all of them are so vigilant - or so scrupulous. Some may be more lenient simply out of empathy or gullibility. The motivated thespian-junkie can simply doctor-shop until he finds one willing to pull out the prescription pad.
What motivates the illicit user? Performance enhancement is certainly part of it. The allure of staying up for days to cram for this exam or finish that paper is irresistible to some.
For most, the instinctive response to these abusers is self-righteous disapproval. A student on the straight-and-narrow might feel the same revulsion towards them as to the news of Barry Bonds's doping: It is not just an unfair advantage, it is unethical.
Is it possible that we are stuck in an archaic line of thinking - that unnatural enhancement must come with a moral taint? Perhaps the psychostimulant abusers are the enlightened ones, practicing better living through chemistry.
The real problem here is the co-opting and abuse of the terminology of psychiatry. People suffering from psychological disorders already have to bear enough social stigma. Students who bend the rules to illegally obtain prescription drugs dilute the reality of psychological illness for legitimate sufferers.
The 8 percent of users who don't need the drugs ruin it for the 3 percent who do. Real brain diseases are cast into doubt and legitimate sufferers are written off as lazy or unmotivated.
Study drugs are amphetamines. Sure, they are purified and cleaned up a bit. They are manufactured in pharmaceutical labs under quality-controlled settings as opposed to a basement junkie cooking up batches of Sudafed. But the chemical structures of the active ingredients are nearly identical.
For legitimate ADHD sufferers, these uppers have the paradoxical effect of calming down their manic behavior. For everyone else, these drugs have the opposite effect and are simply prescription speed. Unafflicted abusers of the drugs claim that they are endowed with supreme powers of concentration and intense activity.
Whether that means powering through 10-page papers or repeatedly washing all the dishes in the house is another story.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Tue, 28 May 2013 10:12:57 -0400