With such chaotic and very busy lives of college students, some of them do not even have the time to study anymore and that is why they turn to a so-called "study drug" to give them a little boost.
These "study drugs" or "brain steroids" have become popular among students who want to be able to focus on their studies longer and is not really something new because this was said to have started way back in 1937, according to Times Higher Education. These students have been turning to these drugs with the hope that they can achieve good grades while enjoying and having fun.
These stimulants used by adolescents are often prescribed to those who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) because it helps them extend their concentration for longer periods of time. However, even if students see ADHD drugs to help them enhance their mental performance, research shows that students who misuse it can get even worse grades over time compared to the ones who do not use study drugs at all, Science News for Students reported.
Amelia Arria, director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland, said that the effects of using stimulants is really different for the students who have existing ADHD, but it is really bad to be taken especially without any kind of prescription and without physician supervision.
Dr. Arria explained that in their research among college students, those who do not use stimulants at all have improved grades in the final year of their degree while the ones who were using stimulants showed no change with the results, which made the authors conclude that there is really no academic benefit taken from using study drugs.
