Adderall Abuse on the Rise Among Athletes

People who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy can greatly reduce their symptoms through using a psycho stimulant called Adderall.

While that’s the intended use of the drug, others are finding unintended uses for it, including athletes who are failing drug tests because of it. For people without ADHD, Adderall lives up to its classification as an amphetamine, providing boosts of energy.

The New York Times recently reported on NFL players linked to the drug, which can help users narrow their focus, including students who have labeled it a "study drug." Unlike performance enhancing drugs like human growth hormone or steroids, which are most commonly associated with bulky football players who need size, the drug is more of a mental enhancer.

The NFL suspended 21 players this year because of drug tests that came back positive for amphetamines such as Adderall, which is a huge increase over the previous year. But what’s going on in the NFL is no different that what’s happening to society as a whole.

As more people (mostly children) are diagnosed with ADHD, more prescriptions are being written and more of the drug is being produced, some of which will fall into the hands of people who acquire it illegally.

According to a psychologist quoted in the Times story, just a few years ago it was estimated that one in ten college students were relying on Adderall and Ritalin to cope with daily tasks. But that number has likely doubled in just a short amount of time.

While students are taking it to help them focus, athletes, such as those recently caught in the NFL, are taking it to battle the exhaustion and fatigue associated with intense physical stress.

One of the problems with the rise in the use of amphetamines like Adderall is that the consequences of the long-term abuse of the drug are not yet known.