# New College drug to help students concentrate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-college-drug-to-help-students-concentrate/275020 "2004-11-16T06:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-college-drug-to-help-students-concentrate/275020/3 "2004-11-16T07:02:52Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I’ve been in college for five years and I _never_ heard of this drug. Supposedly, it is a prescription drug to help people with ADD, and someone figured out it helps you concentrate so they used it as a study aid, but doctors are warning people not to take it without a prescription because of side effects. > > I am kind of skeptical. To me, kids+new drug=hysteria reporters are whipping up to sell newspapers/get ratings. They called this stuff the ‘steriods of the intellectual world’. So am I missing out here? Or is this just a bunch of hogwash? > 😕 What? You never heard of Ritalin? Actually, you’ve just heard of Adderall, which is also used to treat ADD. And both are being illegal used by college students for concentration, altertness, and stay-awakeness. Both drugs are in the amphetamine family. So, bah humbug to these whippersnappers, my generation was using speed back in my college days long before these Gen Y copycats. Like amphetamines, it is illegal to take without a prescription, and they have side effects, and they’re addicting. Stick to clean, moral, and legal living. Get plenty of rest, exercise, and good nutrition. Stick to caffiene as a legal alertness aid, if you must. Or, get a legal prescription from your doctor for modafinil (go ahead, Google) for what appears to be (so far) a non-addictive, safer alertness med to replace caffeine. Peace. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-college-drug-to-help-students-concentrate/275020)._