Health Inquiry Report: Effects of Stimulant Use on Academic Skills

This report, titled "Health Inquiry," examines the impact of stimulant drug use on academic performance among university students. It analyzes two research papers: one employing qualitative interviews to explore students' motivations, experiences, and perceived effects of stimulants on academic and extracurricular lives; the other utilizes a quantitative approach to investigate the relationship between non-medical stimulant use, executive functioning, and academic outcomes. The report highlights the mixed findings regarding the drugs' impact on academic skill enhancement, time management, stress coping, and motivation. It also addresses the potential side effects and risks associated with non-prescription stimulant use, including mood swings, depression, and sleep deprivation. The study concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings for students and the need for further research into the complex relationship between stimulant use and academic success.

Running head: HEALTH INQUIRY
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Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Hildt, E., Lieb, K., & Franke, A. G. (2014). Life context of pharmacological academic
performance enhancement among university students - a qualitative approach. BMC Medical
Ethics, 15(1), 23-23. doi:10.1186/1472-6939-15-23
1. Authorship
a. Klaus Lieb is the head of the department of Psychiatry and psychotherapy of the
Mainz University Medical Center. He is one of the members of the Drug Commission
of the German Medical Association. He is also the member of founding member of
the medical network 'MEZIS – Mein Essen zahl' ich selbst. Andreas Günter Franke is
a trainee of the department. Therefore, his work can be considered to be trustworthy.
Elisabeth Hildt was also head of the Research Group on
Neuroethics/Neurophilosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of
Mainz and has a large number of important journal articles on biomedical ethics.
Hence the experts are really respectable for their contribution and hence their papers
can be trusted.
b. The work was mainly conducted to develop an idea about the trend of use of the drug
stimulants on individuals in their academic years and hence there was a little scope of
conflict as the work was mostly exploratory. Had they developed a thesis statement
before hand, there would have been a scope of conflict. They have mainly ventured
the view of young individuals regarding their stimulant use and no conflicts were
found among the findings and the conflict of use.
2. Research aims:
a. The authors mainly wanted to gather information about the reasons of the young
individuals’ use of stimulants, their experiences after the use of stimulants and how

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the stimulants impact on the academic results along with their in and outside
university lives.
b. They have established how arguments have been raised where lack of enhancing
effects were stated by the researchers whereas other articles have given positive hints
about the use of the drugs in developing regular activities like partying, getting higher
and others among which academic had been a part. No work had been conducted
where academics have been solely taken as matter of concern for studying the effects
of the drugs. Most of them until now have mainly provide importance to the misuse
of prescribed drugs in on mental enhancement (Prosek et al., 2017). Therefore, it was
very important for researchers to determine the non-cognitive effect of psycho
stimulant. Therefore, knowing the perceptions of students were much important. So
they perfectly prepared the grounds of the study with identifying the knowledge gap.
3. Design:
a. Face to face interviews were conducted in an extensive semi-structured procedure.
They made sure that the participants are free from any psychiatric diseases and are
not under any prescribed psychoactive medication.
b. Since they were in aim of developing a broad idea and needed answers of questions
about perception of interviewees, therefore, this qualitative procedure is apt (Benson
et al., 2015).
c. Mainly, students pursuing academic courses in the Mainz University were taken in
considerations where 30 participants had applied via email and phone over an
advertisement on bulletin boards. Out of them, 22 interviews were carried out and 8

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were eliminated due to exclusion criteria. Out of this 4 interviews were not collected
as the participants were diagnosed with ADHD.
4. Students take such medicines not only for developing their academic grades but also for a
large number of other factors like for managing time, for maintaining work life balance,
to release stress, to increase motivation and to cope with memorizing. Many have stated
that the drugs help in remembering information and they feel that their brain becomes
more receptive. However, on the other hand, many systems that the same information can
be retained by the brain if studied earlier much before the exam rather than trying to learn
in last moments. A large number of side effects are also noticed (King et al., 2014). This
drug does not make complex information simple to be better adapted by brain but rather
help in remembering the information when studied in last minute. Hence drug use for
academic enhancement is a much as this medication mainly help in motivation, time
management, manage outside activities other than academic along with helping students
to learn important information in last minute by energizing them.
Munro, B. A., Weyandt, L. L., Marraccini, M. E., & Oster, D. R. (2017). The relationship
between nonmedical use of prescription stimulants, executive functioning and academic
outcomes. Addictive Behaviors, 65, 250-257. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.08.023
1. Authorship:
a. The main authors of the article is Bailey A. Munro, Lisa L. Weyandt, Marisa E.
Marraccini b , Danielle R. Oster c. The first author is a post doctoral researcher at a
Advanced Psychological Services of Rode island. She is working chiefly with the
children, adolescents and adults suffering from ADHD. Moreover, she is an educator
of the physiological psychology, organic chemistry, and introductory chemistry. Like

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her, the other members belong to b Alpert Medical School of Brown University,
Bradley Hasbro Research Center, Providence, Rhode Island, United States and
Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, United States and have large
number of famous research work in their names. Their paper has been published by
‘Elsevier and hence their work is trustworthy and respectable.
b. The hypothesis made by the authors conflicted with the findings of the paper. They
had hypothesized two important facts. While the first fact aligned with the findings of
the paper, the later fact did not align and there was a sharp contrast found between the
author’s hypothesis and that of the findings of the paper.
2. Research aims:
a. The main research hypothesis that were laid down by the researchers are firstly, that
students who have poorer executive functioning skills are more likely to get addicted
to the non medical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) in comparisons to those
students who have average level of EF. The second hypothesis is that (NMUPS)
moderate the relationship between EF and academic performance.
3. According to the authors, there are many studies which have found out those students
who have low executive functioning skills like poor planning, lack of self motivation,
perform poor tests and many others usually use NMUPS at a very high rate they are
mainly doing this to overcome the their deficits and to score well in academics. They get
engaged in many risky behaviors. Papers have also found that students with ADHD have
been benefitted from the use of NMUPS. However, direct relationship between both the
EF and the use of NMUPS among college students has not been conducted.
4. Design

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a. A quantitative method was taken. After seeking permission, students had to apply
through a face book portal where they were redirected to three important steps. The
first one is the demographic questionnaire. The second was the Stimulant Survey
Questionnaire (SSQ) which measured the non medical use of the stimulants. The
next was the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale (BDEFS for Adult
which measured their dimensions of executive functioning. T-test was then conducted
with one continuous dependent variable of the Survey Questionnaire (SSQ) and that
with the dichotomous independent variable like the presence or absence of the EF.
For the second hypothesis, a two way between subjects anova was performed
between two dichotomous independent variables (nonmedical use of prescription
stimulant status and EF level) and that with the one continuous dependent variable
(GPA). A post hoc analysis was also conducted to find link between the NMUPS
(SSQ Self-Reported Prescription Stimulant Misuse) and the total and subscale scores
of the BDEFs by the use of Pearson product-moment.
b. This approach was found to be important as the author wanted to establish hypothesis
based on the relationship with two important factors where he wanted to know that
the increase of one factor associated the increase of another factor. Since t tests are
extremely helpful in depicting the associations between two factors, the test had been
rightly chosen. As ANOVAs is helpful in determining whether there are any
statistical significant differences are present between the means, therefore, it is
extremely important for helping the authors for examining their second hypothesis
where they wanted to find connections between NMUPS moderating EF or not.
c. Participants:

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There were 306 students selected for the research and other 6 were eliminated as they
were not coming under the colleges selected for the study. They had a mean age of
participants who were 20.77 and were mostly female. Participants form different
races and backgrounds were included.
5. The first finding was that students who had lower levels of Ef were more dependent on
the use of NMUPS in comparison to those who did not report of lower Ef. This study
shows that this procedure helps them with time management. This did not help those who
are not low of EF.
The second founding was that lowered Ef students scored lower GPA in exams and lower
academic achievement. However, an interesting fact which it revealed is that the lowered
levels of GPA due to lowered Ef are not moderated by NMUPS.
Part B:
1. Taking stimulants without prescription form the doctors is an illegal activity and
hence may bring out negative impacts if caught hold of one (Benett & Holloway,
2017). Still going on with the use of such drugs may pose risk on the student if caught
without a prescription (Barth et al., 2017). Although the drug has been seen to
enhance time management skills, cope up with stress, keeps motivated, induces
energy to work for long, maintains work life balance and others, it has also many
roles behind academic performance enhancement. However, a large number of side
effects have bend depicted by both the authors like mood swings, depression, anxiety
issues, abuses by the students, sleep deprivation and others which may make the
students lead into a new phase of issues creating poor quality life (Van Dongen,

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2015). Therefore, these may create barriers. Besides using they irresponsibly would
lead to harmful side effects.
2. The research studies aligned completely with the pico questions at both of them
described the effect of the stimulant drugs on academic skill enhancement. One of the
papers saw students providing mixed reviews about the effects of the drugs on their
academics. The paper stated that the drugs did not provide any extra advantage in
simplifying nay complex information in the brain in case of information inculcation
by the brain. However, some provided information that the drugs help them to
concentrate and cope up with their motivation in the last hour of the preparation.
They also suggested that not only academics, they also helped in maintaining work
life balance, helped them in developing music and many others. Moreover, it is also
stated by many students that if they studied beforehand, they would never require
such drugs. Therefore, it satisfied the pico question giving the readers an idea about
whether drugs have any positive influence in academic enhancement.
The second paper was also very much helpful in developing ideas about the use of
drugs. The drugs are used in higher number with students who have poor executive
functioning than those who have average executive functioning. This paper had
completely stated that the use of such drugs do no moderate low GPA and executive
functioning. This clearly answers Wasim’s query with the pico question and
therefore, he should avoid using such medication as they have many side effects
which might harm his academic life as well.

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References:
Barth, K. S., Ball, S., Adams, R. S., Nikitin, R., Wooten, N. R., Qureshi, Z. P., & Larson, M. J.
(2017). Development and Feasibility of an Academic Detailing Intervention to Improve
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Use Among Physicians. Journal of Continuing
Education in the Health Professions, 37(2), 98-105. doi:
10.1097/CEH.0000000000000149
Bennett, T., & Holloway, K. (2017). Motives for illicit prescription drug use among university
students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Drug
Policy, 44, 12-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.02.012
Benson, K., Flory, K., Humphreys, K. L., & Lee, S. S. (2015). Misuse of stimulant medication
among college students: a comprehensive review and meta-analysis. Clinical child and
family psychology review, 18(1), 50-76. Retrieved from:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-014-0177-z
Hildt, E., Lieb, K., & Franke, A. G. (2014). Life context of pharmacological academic
performance enhancement among university students - a qualitative approach. BMC
Medical Ethics, 15(1), 23-23. doi:10.1186/1472-6939-15-23

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King, M. D., Jennings, J., & Fletcher, J. M. (2014). Medical adaptation to academic pressure: schooling,
stimulant use, and socioeconomic status. American Sociological Review, 79(6), 1039-1066.
doi/abs/10.1177/0003122414553657
Munro, B. A., Weyandt, L. L., Marraccini, M. E., & Oster, D. R. (2017). The relationship
between nonmedical use of prescription stimulants, executive functioning and academic
outcomes. Addictive Behaviors, 65, 250-257.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.08.023
Prosek, E. A., Giordano, A. L., Turner, K. D., Bevly, C. M., Reader, E. A., LeBlanc, Y., ... &
Garber, S. A. (2017). Prevalence and Correlates of Stimulant Medication Misuse Among
the Collegiate Population. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 1-13. Doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2017.1313691
Van Dongen, H. P. (2015). Sleep deprivation, stimulant medications, and cognition. Sleep
Research Society: vol: 38, pp: 1145-1146 https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4832