Associations between Illicit ADHD Medication Use and Aspects of Mental Distress Among College Students

The illicit use of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication has become a prevalent issue on college campuses. Illicit ADHD medications are used without a medical prescription. The concern is that these medications are psychostimulants that may alter brain chemistry and affect the quality of brain maturity in individuals who do not need them medically, which potentially can affect mental health. An alarmingly high percent of reported illicit ADHD medication users are college aged students between the age of 18 and 22 years. Little is known about the effect of illicit ADHD medication use on mental well-being among college students. Thus, the purpose of the study was to assess the impact of illicit ADHD medication use on different aspects of mental distress among college students. The study collected 702 responses from undergraduate students at several US colleges and included self-reported data on illicit Adderall use, age and symptoms of mental distress. The anonymous survey was created in Google Forms. Mental distress was evaluated through The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). The data were analyzed in SPSS, Version 28.0, using Pearson’s Correlation Coeffcient. Of the 72.5% of the participants who reported using ADHD medication without a prescription, 71.4% reported academic reasons as their motivation for use. There is a positive correlation between feelings of worthlessness and illicit ADHD medication use (p<0.05). Age was negatively correlated with feelings nervous (p<0.01) and restless or fidgety (p<0.01). Additionally, a negative correlation was found between age and being able to do only half or less of what you would normally have been able to do (p<0.01). On the other hand, illicit ADHD medication use was negatively correlated with feeling that everything was an effort (p<0.05), as well feeling unable to work or carry out normal activities (p<0.01). Our results suggest that students who use ADHD medication illicitly are more likely to experience symptoms of mental distress. Interestingly, our findings propose that the younger the age of use, the higher the risk of mental distress. We received no support or financial grants. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.