Name: Does Adderall (& Stimulants) Improve Student GPA? – Overview of the Literature
Uploaded: 2020-06-08T06:58:46.000Z
Duration: 9 min 36 s
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Unless you've been living under a rock, you're likely well aware that stimulants

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such as Adderall or Ritalin have been increasingly used in recent years by students who are eager

In this video, we'll go over the science behind stimulants and whether or not they actually

What's going on guys! Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.

Let's get a couple important items out of

First, for those of you who are wondering, I have never taken any drugs or substances

to help me study or be productive, other than the occasional coffee once every few months.

Second, I am not your doctor and I am not providing medical advice in any capacity.

Third, this video and the content here are primarily targeted to individuals who are

using these substances as cognitive enhancers, without a diagnosis of ADHD, narcolepsy, or

other conditions that warrant their prescription.

Please speak to your physician prior to starting, stopping, or changing any medications.

Now, Methylphenidate such as Ritalin or Amphetamine such as Adderall are the two prescription

stimulants most commonly used by students seeking to improve their attention, concentration,

These are schedule II substances in the US, placing them in the same category as cocaine,

Now, while these stimulants are effective with professional supervision for treating

ADHD, their utility as a study or concentration aid has not been thoroughly validated.

And while the prescribed use and supervision by your physician is relatively safe, misuse

or abuse of any stimulant can have adverse effects.

A sizable portion of college students use these substances as cognitive enhancers, under

the belief that these drugs will improve their grades.

To answer the question of whether or not they actually do, let's first start with how

The cognitive-enhancing effects of stimulants are due to the preferential effect of catecholamines

in the prefrontal cortex and activation of the Norepinephrine αlfa 2 and Dopamine D1

Catecholamines are a group of neurotransmitters including norepinephrine, epinephrine, and

At low clinically relevant doses that a doctor may prescribe, the PFC-dependent function

is enhanced, which contributes to the stimulants use in ADHD.

But at larger doses, the PFC-dependent attentional processes are improved at the expense of other

processes, like working memory or response inhibition.

Methylphenidate or Ritalin and Amphetamine or Adderall both increase extracellular levels

of Norepinephrine and Dopamine throughout the brain, largely by blocking Norepinephrine

Amphetamine additionally stimulates the release of Dopamine through the Dopamine transporter.

And while amphetamines at higher doses block serotonin reuptake, methylphenidate only blocks

Now, let's move to the cognitive effects.

The cognitive enhancement properties of stimulants have been studied in the following four categories.

First, inhibitory control, which is linked to focus and avoiding distraction.

Number three, short-term episodic memory, referring to memory and recall within 30 minutes

And lastly, delayed episodic memory, referring to longer intervals, such as one hour to one

In a systematic review of the literature, Ilieva et al demonstrated that there is a small but

significant degree of enhancement of inhibitory control and short-term episodic memory.

The effects on working memory are inconclusive, as one statistical analysis demonstrated a

small but statistically significant improvement, and the other demonstrated no statistical

Delayed episodic memory was the cognitive factor that demonstrated the largest effect.

Now, because stimulants had stronger effects on delayed episodic memory over the short-term

episodic memory, this data suggest that stimulants may more potently affect a memory consolidation

in comparison with encoding or retrieval.

Now, this is interesting, there is evidence that stimulants can actually impair performance

in normal individuals who are especially high performing.

In short, this means that individual variations account for a significant degree of the benefit

In 2017, Arria et al. published a prospective cohort study examining close to 900 college

Their conclusion, non-prescribed prescription stimulants did not demonstrate any statistically

significant effect on university GPA scores.

Now, there are multiple other factors that have been linked with stronger cognitive enhancement

Mindfulness meditation, for example, has demonstrated stronger effects on inhibitory control, which

ultimately helps you focus on the task at hand.

The cognitive enhancement from stimulants is smaller and more comparable to the cognitive

Ultimately, the most important thing that you care about is your GPA and your test scores,

right, and stimulants have not been shown to improve student GPAs.

However, when speaking about broader cognitive benefits, it's important to note that there

are several limitations with the current literature.

Notably, sustained attention and processing speed were not adequately studied.

Current studies also do not examine performance under fatigue, sleep deprivation, or distraction.

And while these possible cognitive benefits are often emphasized, it's important we do

not overlook the adverse effects of using these medications.

Short term side-effects may include GI problems, blurred vision, irritability, insomnia, increased

body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and many others.

Long term adverse effects include hallucinations, psychosis, cardiac arrest, and death.

Don't forget the risk of addiction, headache, panic attacks, aggressive behavior, and a

link to suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

I've gone over the science and current literature on stimulants used by students for cognitive

enhancement and I was as objective as possible, keeping my opinion out of it until now.

There are a few points I'd like to raise.

Again, keep in mind that these points are for those who do not have a medically valid

If you are on these medications for a medical condition, this does not apply to you.

First, the moral and ethical implications.

If you believe that taking stimulants is in fact benefiting you, which again the literature

is inconclusive then what is the fairness to those students you are competing with who

This opens up a whole other debate that is similar yet distinct from performance-enhancing