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PRESCRIPTION STIMULANT ABUSED BY SOME STUDENTS ANXIOUS FOR EDGE

There's a new study aid spreading around high schools and college campuses.  By using it, though, students could be risking their health, not to mention breaking the law.

It's called Adderall, a stimulant that treats attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  Looking for any edge they can get, some teens who don't have ADHD say they are using the amphetamine drug to help stay alert and concentrate while cramming for finals, cranking out last-minute papers or taking the SAT.

In interviews with 125 local high school students, 20 told the Mercury News they knew somebody who had tried Adderall without a prescription and nine said they had experimented with the drug themselves.

Students say Adderall is easy to find.  Some who have ADHD share their prescriptions with friends.  Others sell it for up to $5 a pill or exchange the drug for a tank of gas.  One Palo Alto senior hides the pills he gets from a friend in a tin of breath mints.  Another said she started swiping pills from her brother after seeing one of TV's "Desperate Housewives" pop her son's ADHD drugs.

Illegal, Habit-Forming

"It's like mental steroids," said Becky Beacom, manager of health education at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, which surveys Palo Alto students each year on drug and alcohol use.  "Students think they need that extra edge to get into college."

This year's survey for the first time included a question about ADHD drugs - -- including Adderall, Ritalin and Dexedrine -- and more than 7 percent of the 1,304 Palo Alto High students surveyed said they had used them without a prescription at least once.  Seven students said they do so every day.

"It's like caffeine or Red Bull," said a Los Altos High senior who said his friend gives him Adderall to help him focus on finals or major papers.  "It's like any other pick-me-up."

Not quite.  Possessing Adderall or similar medications without a prescription -- let alone selling it -- is illegal, and subject to fines and jail time.

And doctors warn that Adderall can be habit-forming.  Its side effects range from insomnia, loss of appetite and abdominal pain to psychosis and exacerbating physical and verbal tics, according to Shire Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes the drug.  Canadian health officials recently stopped the sale of a newer version of the drug, Adderall XR, after Adderall was linked to 20 sudden deaths worldwide.

Aware Of Risks

Students who acknowledged trying the drug said they knew about the health risks, and many of them knew it is illegal.  None of them wanted their names published, either because of the illegality of what they were doing, or more often because they didn't want their parents to find out.

"I know it's probably messing up my body," said a 17-year-old Palo Alto High senior, who has taken dozens of pills over the past year.  He said he has experienced sleepless nights, chills, a racing heart and weight loss.  But he credits the pills with helping him manage the intense demands of schoolwork, after-school sports and a busy social life.

Students who don't take the drug aren't surprised that others are willing to take the risk, especially at highly competitive schools.  Bellarmine College Preparatory students discussed Adderall during a recent psychology class.  Student newspapers at Palo Alto, Gunn and Los Altos high schools and Santa Clara University have featured articles about the Adderall trend.

"It's happening more and more and it helps people understand how much pressure is put on kids my age to succeed," said Rachel Berman, who wrote about Adderall for Palo Alto High's newspaper and says she knows more than a dozen people who have tried it at least once to study.

Adrenaline Flow

By mimicking natural chemicals in the brain and increasing the flow of adrenaline, especially to parts of the brain responsible for judgment and problem solving, Adderall helps users be more focused and less impulsive and distracted.  Shire Pharmaceuticals calls the drug an "amphetamine mixture" that improves the attention span of people with ADHD, mellows them, allows them to follow directions better and to think before acting.  Students who use it without a prescription say it gives them a rush and propels them to focus intensely on a subject.

"You can't think about anything else but doing the work," said another Los Altos High senior.  "It's like tunnel vision: You just zone in."

He said he took Adderall with a friend recently before working on their senior projects.  He had used the drug twice before that: to take a math test and to write a six-page English paper about Hermann Hesse's spiritual journey "Siddhartha."

"You're able to really think deeply about the subject and show the teacher a different way of looking at the text," said the boy, whose grades didn't change much; he gets mostly A's and B's already.

The Palo Alto High student who experienced the side effects described a similar experience but admitted it may be a placebo effect.

He often takes one before study sessions for major exams, or moments before tests, such as last fall's SAT.

Some students who don't take Adderall see it as cheating.

"This just puts more pressure on people who don't take the drug," said Palo Alto High freshman Liv Jensen.

Liv's friend Mia Pond, 14, said she's heard of people taking it but doesn't feel threatened by the trend.

"Someone who wants to get into college that desperately has deeper problems in their lives, like maybe they don't feel good enough about themselves," Mia said.

Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford has seen a slight uptick in teen patients abusing ADHD drugs, said Seth Ammerman, acting director of the hospital's Division of Adolescent Medicine.  But he said the rise is mostly explained by the fact that the drug is prescribed more and so is easier to get.  Pharmacists fill more than 20,000 prescriptions across the country every day, according to the drug's maker.

"Going back as far as 30 years ago, students used amphetamines," said Ammerman, adding that Adderall is just the latest version.

Child psychiatrists say parents and teachers should start asking questions if a student starts sleeping poorly, losing weight or appearing zombie-like.  Psychiatrists also want to make students with ADHD visit doctors more frequently so they don't build up a "stash" of the drug that can be stolen, sold or given away.

A spokesman for Shire Pharmaceuticals said the company had not heard any concern about students using the drug as a study aid -- except from media accounts.

"We're not getting calls from school officials or parents saying we have a problem here," company representative Matt Cabrey said.  Moreover, the newer version of the drug, Adderall XR, is less likely to be abused, he said, because instead of supplying a sudden rush it releases the drug slowly throughout the day.

Wayne Benitez, Palo Alto High's student resource officer, said it's hard to catch students illicitly using the drug because administrators don't know who has prescriptions and who doesn't.

Bad News

"When there's an adverse reaction when someone gets very sick, that's when we'll hear about it," Benitez said.  "You're not going to search every kid's backpack."

Palo Alto High Principal Scott Laurence said a student was arrested and suspended a few years ago for using a type of illegal amphetamine to stay up late to study.  But Laurence said the school's drug survey highlights how few students abuse prescription drugs.  Instead of focusing on the negative, the school plans to emphasize that 92 percent of students say they have never tried ADHD drugs illicitly.

The Los Altos High School student working on his senior project said he doesn't feel pressure from his peers to use Adderall because it's cool; he feels pressure to compete in the academic arena.

If you don't go to a University of California school, he said, "people look down on you."

He said he knows his limit when it comes to Adderall.

"I'm going to try not to rely on it.  I'm pretty sure I won't."