DeSantis was interviewed on CBS’s 60 Minutes in a segment called "Boosting Brain Power" on April 25th. Several University of Kentucky (UK) students were interviewed as well, discussing how common and accepted it is to take Adderall, a psychostimulant often used in the treatment of ADHD, without a prescription on campus.

Jane Shropshire of the Business Lexington writes that because many students using the drug illicitly do so primarily to improve their academic performance, and because most of them know someone who takes the drug by prescription, they have developed a false sense that the drug carries virtually no negative consequences.

Many people may remember taking NoDoz, caffeine in a capsule readily available over the counter, to make it through an all-nighter when preparing for exams. However, Adderall isn’t a modern-day NoDoz. It’s a medication prescribed for individuals with ADHD to stimulate dopamine production for more highly focused brain function. Students diagnosed with ADHD benefit from the stimulant effect, as it allows them to focus for longer periods on tasks at hand.

Many students and adults with diagnosed attention deficits find that stimulant medication, prescribed by a doctor, makes a meaningful difference in their lives. However, according to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who was also interviewed on 60 Minutes, these medications can lead to addiction, psychosis, and other side effects widely considered unsafe and undesirable. With medical oversight, appropriate and safe use can be monitored. Without such monitoring, harmful effects could ensue.

In his research, DeSantis explores the stigma-free environment students have created for Adderall as well as the prevalence of its use. Here are some noteworthy statistics: 34 percent of UK students surveyed for his research project said that they took ADHD medications without prescriptions. When DeSantis looked at responses from juniors and seniors only, the rate jumped to nearly 60 percent. And when he isolated respondents who were members of fraternities or sororities, the rate of use approached 80 percent.

Interestingly enough, most of the suppliers are students with prescriptions for the medication who do not use all of their monthly pills. They are selling their extra pills or, in some cases, giving them away to friends.

An April 28 news report in the Brattleboro Reformer (Vermont) described the arrest of two individuals charged with selling the prescription drug Adderall. If convicted, they each could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Some may consider this discussion of illicit Adderall use trivial, given the seemingly perpetual abuse of drugs and alcohol on college campuses more broadly and the potential for related tragedies. Inside Higher Ed reported on April 26 that the president of a liberal arts college in Oregon was recently visited by state and federal authorities and told plainly that the college had to alter its permissive stance toward drug use. In the last two years, this small college has lost two students to heroin overdoses.

Regarding alcohol, broad social acceptance and easy access to it can make it seem deceptively benign and an easier alternative than drugs. Use and abuse of alcohol on college campuses has a history fraught with challenges that spans many generations.

Yet familiarity does not make it safe: according to a website maintained by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, approximately 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from unintentional injuries related to alcohol. Additional statistics are maintained for injuries, assaults, sexual abuse and other alcohol-related problems among this population. They are certainly sobering to review.

Many students with ADHD diagnoses have truly benefited from stimulant medication like Adderall, and many professionals can vouch for its beneficial effect in the right cases. We’ve seen the improved focus and motivation and the resulting positive changes in grades and accomplishments.

However, the increasing incidence of students choosing to medicate themselves without any evidence of an actual condition requiring prescription drugs warrants attention.

Campuses everywhere have drug and alcohol awareness programs to educate students about making wise choices. We just have to hope that the students taking drugs like Adderall without prescription understand that these programs apply to them, because there is very real risk attached to their choice to take such a pill casually. They do indeed "use drugs."

It’s finals week. But somehow that week extends itself into the prior week’s weekend, probably farther. It’s Saturday morning. Waking up early to ensure a table with coveted plug access on my favorite floor of the library is already losing its allure. Good news is my backpack is already packed from last night’s studying…but it needs to be restocked for today’s studying agenda. Textbooks? Check. Laptop? Check. Pens, pencils, notebooks, calculator, wallet, computer charger? Check. Adderall? Swallow.

Adderall is a legally approved amphetamine classified as having the highest potential for dependence and or abuse. It is a common treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is also prescribed to treat narcolepsy. As defined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Adderall is produced by combining neutral sulfate salts of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine with dextro isomer of amphetamine saccharate and d, I-amphetamine asparate monohydrate. In a national study by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) conducted in 2007, full- time college students ages 18-22 were twice as likely to use Adderall nonmedically than their same age counterparts. The same study identified that full time, Adderall- using college students, when compared to their same age counterparts who did not use Adderall, were using cocaine at a rate of 28.9% versus 3.6%, nonmedical tranquilizers at a rate of 24.5% versus 3%, and nonmedical pain relievers at a rate of 44.9% versus 8.7%.

It is easy to understand Adderall’s popularity with full- time college students. As a study aide, it’s reportedly the best. My fellow collegians describe it to me as the drug that provides “tunnel focus,” the desire to read and highlight like never before, and a true competitor against the distraction of Facebook. It is inexpensive and available (often offered to me on the library front steps), and a dear friend of the grade point average. But in order to seriously weigh the pros and cons of Adderrall use, it needs to be taken out of the context of a study aid and looked at for what it really is, a prescription drug.

Like any other prescription drug abuse, nonmedical use of Adderall can lead to unintended results. The National Institute of Health’s (NIH) current medication information website states that only in rare cases would anyone prescribed Adderall for ADHD take more than 40mg a day. It also reports that patients who increased their dosage to many levels beyond recommended have experienced extreme fatigue and mental depression, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, personality changes, various skin diseases, and psychosis (frequently clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia). Its label warns misuse can cause sudden death and serious cardiovascular adverse events. Whether you view Adderall as a temporary means to an “A” end or feel you struggle with prescription drug abuse, if you are not legitimately prescribed Adderall for a medical condition (or even if you are), it is important to recognize it as a powerful amphetamine that has a powerful amphetamine’s effects. Whatever you decide about your Adderall use, make your decision an informed one.

According to a recent release in Science Daily, research from The Rockefeller University demonstrates that methylphenidate, otherwise known as Ritalin, could change the brain in the same ways that cocaine does.

This latest research suggests that physical changes in neurons in reward regions of mouse brains are the result of the use of methylphenidate. In certain cases, the effects overlapped with those of cocaine.

Yong Kim, senior research associate, and Paul Greengard, Vincent Astor Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, led the researchers as they exposed mice to two weeks of daily injections of cocaine or methylphenidate.

Part of the process included examining the reward areas of the brain for changes in dendritic spine formation, which is related to the formation of synapses and the communication between nerve cells. They also examined the expression of a protein delta Fos B, which has been implicated in the long-term actions of addictive drugs.

While both drugs increased dendritic spine formation and the expression of delta Fos B, the precise patterns of their effects were distinct. The effects of the drugs differed somewhat in the spines affected, the cells affected and the brain regions. At times, there were overlaps between the drugs and in some cases, the methylphenidate produced greater effects than cocaine.

“Methylphenidate, which is thought to be a fairly innocuous compound, can have structural and biochemical effects in some regions of the brain that can be even greater than those of cocaine,” said Kim in Science Daily.. “Further studies are needed to determine the behavioral implications of these changes and to understand the mechanisms by which these drugs affect synapse formation.”