“If you take Ritalin and Adderall it’s much closer to a more natural feeling—the sense of focus is not something I haven’t felt before without drugs,” Joe said.
University Health Services Director Dr. David S. Rosenthal ’59 wrote in an e-mail that the use of Ritalin and other prescription drugs by students without prescriptions “could be” a significant problem at the College.
Some students who use these drugs without prescriptions said that users often believe they suffer from undiagnosed disorders.
A junior, who was diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder in September and has taken a number of prescription medications since then, said he is occasionally approached by students who want to buy the drug.
He said he thinks most students who use the drugs without having prescriptions get the “leftovers” from those who have been diagnosed and have extra.
The senior said he thinks many people assume that taking these drugs without a prescription is harmless because so many people are diagnosed with attention deficit disorders.
“All you can do is tests based on peoples’ responses to things—it’s so relative,” he said. “People figure they can show up and say they have ADD and they’d give it to [them], so it’s not that big a deal”
A junior who said he took dextroamphetamines to get through exam period last spring said he would probably be diagnosed with ADHD if he were tested—and that his family has a history of using stimulants to study.
He said his father and his medical school classmates prescribed the drugs to each other to get through their grueling late nights.
“[My dad] didn’t say that I could use them, but since he had used them I figured they were okay,” the junior said. “There is certainly a family culture of pharmacological liberties.”
He said he would have continued taking the amphetamine if the student from whom he got the pills hadn’t graduated.
Rosenthal cautioned that such illicit use of prescription drugs poses a risk of overdose as well as “significant short term side effects and perhaps long term.”
Despite his initial concerns, Joe said he does not think he has become addicted, even though he now uses such drugs weekly.
“I still have nights where I work really hard to stay up all night studying or working without it, so as long as I don’t ever feel like it’s a prerequisite for me getting stuff done I don’t think there’s a problem,” he said.
—Staff writer Jeffrey C. Aguero contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer David B. Rochelson can be reached at rochels@fas.harvard.edu.