College students’ illicit use of study drugs is a well-documented fact on U.S. college campuses. American students of both genders and all races use various prescription stimulants illicitly, however their real motives remain a moot point in the scholarly research on the issue. Academic motives of the use of the study drugs include improved concentration ability and alertness. At the same time, do college students use the prescribed drugs for other than academic purposes? Based on recent research in this area, it has been found that although college students use illicit prescription drugs primarily for academic purposes, they also do this for non-academic and recreational purposes. The users of study drugs seek the effects of additional energy, sociability, staying “high,” enhancing the impact of alcohol, and some other effects of prescription drugs.
Teter, Christian, McCabe, Sean, LaGrange, Kristy, Cranford, James, and Carol Boyd, C. J. “Illicit Use of Specific Prescription Stimulants Among College Students: Prevalence, Motives, and Routes of Administration.” Pharmacotherapy, 26 (2006): 1501–1510.
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"College Students’ Use of Study Drugs".
This article explores motives and prevalence of illicit use of study drugs by college students. The study aimed at identifying key motives of illicit prescription drugs use by the sample of undergraduate college students. Using the quantitative research methodology (a Web survey known as Student Life Survey, was administered), the researchers collected data from a random sample of as many as 9, 161 participants. Data was analyzed statistically, which allowed finding out that the key motives for illicit use of prescription drugs.by college undergraduates were help with concentration, alertness increase, and “high” condition. One more motive identified was the desire to counteract the effects of other drugs including alcohol. It was also found that both men and women used prescription drugs illicitly, with the number of men being higher and no differences found between the motives of the two genders.
The article is directly connected to the research issue. It supports the hypothesis that college students illicitly use the prescription drugs not only for academic purposes but also driven by recreational and non-academic motives. The findings are empirically based and provide adequate evidence to support the thesis. In particular, the authors explicitly state that “to get high” is the leading motive in many illicit study drug users; for as many as 20% of users “curiosity and experimentation” were as important as the alertness effect. While concentration benefit was the most frequent one (in 58% respondents), the alertness and high motives had equal percentage in frequency of use (43% and 43% respectively). Hence, the conclusion that “college students se prescription stimulants illicitly for many reasons” will be relied upon in the future research (Teter et al 261).
DeSantis, Alan, Webb, Elizabeth, & Seth Noar. “Illicit Use of Prescription ADHD Medications on a College Campus: A Multimethodological Approach.” Journal of American College Health 57.3 (2008): 315-324.
This article explores various aspects of college students’ illicit use of prescription drugs and investigates their perceptions of this use. Using a mixed-method research design and a large sample of 1,811 participants, the authors have found a high incidence of illicit study drugs use among the undergraduates. Just as the researchers aimed to examine the motives and other aspect of use of the ADHD medications, they found that those were used “predominantly for the […] serious pursuit of “getting good grades.” However, of the utmost importance for our research is their statement that apart from academic purposes “these students turned to stimulants for recreational purposes” (De Santis et al 319). Along with the quantitative data that 7% of these students reportedly use ADHD medication to have fun, I would like to incorporate into my research the qualitative data which clarifies non-academic uses. These are “the additional energy it (the drug) supplies to the users”, making students “more social and talkative”, and “combining alcohol and stimulants” (DeSantis et al 320).
Hall, Kristina, Irwin, Melissa, Bowman, Krista, Frankenberger, William, and David Jewett. “Illicit Use of Prescribed Stimulant Medication Among College Students.” Journal of American College Health 53.4 (2005): 167-174.
The article by Hall et al is directly related to the issue of the research. The study aimed to investigate the extent to which college students used stimulant medications for ADHD illicitly; determine the motives of students’ study drug abuse; and identify the factors which predicted the students’ illicit use of ADHD prescribed medication. The findings of the research are important for the intended research, since they provide evidence that “clear relationships […] exist between the illicit use of stimulants and both academics and recreation” (Hall et al 172). Moreover, the study revealed that only 14% of the participants agreed that using stimulants had a positive long-term effect on their academic achievements” and discovered that a high percentage of college undergraduates used ADHD medication when they partied and for fun (Hall et al 72). Finally, the study’s prediction that stimulant medications in their use for non-academic purposes “may already be approaching that of cocaine and marijuana” is a significant addition to the overall understanding of the problem (Hall et al 173).
Rozenbroek, Katelyn and William Rothstein. “Medical and Nonmedical Users of Prescription Drugs Among College Students.” Journal of American College Health, 59.5 (2011): 358-363. Print.
This study informs the research problem by providing reliable quantitative data on motives and various other aspects of nonmedical use of prescriptions drugs by college undergraduate students. Specifically, the researchers investigated the illicit use of three types of drugs: opioids, stimulants, and CNS depressants. What is important, they have come to a conclusion that non-medical illicit use of prescription drugs is predominantly rooted in non-academic motives, with stimulants “used less frequently than other prescriptions medications” (Rozenbroek & Rothstein 360). Even more importantly, academic motives have turned out to be secondary to academic purposes in illicit use of prescription drugs: “it makes me feel good” appeared the most common reason for the use of opioids as well as CNS depressants, whereas “just to try it/curiosity” was the second most widespread reason amongst the students with reference to all three types of drugs. These important findings will be incorporate into the research to highlight the scope of he problem and some debatable issues within the research field.
