Adderall (sp?)

[[old] NJhsRower]

well there is a kid on my team that always takes adderalls that aren't prescribed to him before ergs and races. he swears that it is a performance enhancer (yea i tried telling him to stop) but i am kind of thinking that adderall would hurt his performance more then help. so is he right by saying it makes him do better?

[[old] SlugButt]

<br />I don't know of any research specifically on methylphenidate (Adderall) on performance and didn't check for abstracts before replying. My thinking was that the more important concern may be that, if I understand your post correctly, it sounds like this kid is taking a medication that has not been prescibed for him. Bad idea. <br /><br />Canada banned Adderall for a period in the recent past due to concerns about sudden deaths in people taking that class of medications. Within the past day or so the FDA has (finally) decided that there is a concern and is advocating adding warning to labels for these drugs. Given recent ethics difficulties in the drug industry, the relatively lackluster levels of diligance in post-approval drug monitoring, and informaiton on significant financial conflicts of interest among FDA employees, my bias would be to give the warnings a close look in considering the risks and benefits of these medications. If this kid is taking Adderall in hope of improving erg scores and has no therapeutic need for it then it seems an easy decision. Unneeded medication . . . essentially cheating . . . not prescribed . . . risk of cardiac failure . . . erg testing . . . He needs to worry about natural selection more than team selection.<br /><br />I hope his coach makes it clear that he will be dropped from the team if he does not stop use. Otherwise, one has to wonder if he will end up as a statistic or cautionary tale. I'm surprised that his teammates would tolerate his lack of integrity in trying to find a short cut for performance. <br /><br />It sounds like you're in an awkward position knowing this person. Even though it may be a hard thing to do, I hope you let his coach know and make the dangers clear. You may save a life.<br /><br />Good luck!

[[old] NJhsRower]

<!--quoteo(post=55539:date=Feb 10 2006, 11:01 PM:name=SlugButt)--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(SlugButt @ Feb 10 2006, 11:01 PM) </b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>I don't know of any research specifically on methylphenidate (Adderall) on performance and didn't check for abstracts before replying. My thinking was that the more important concern may be that, if I understand your post correctly, it sounds like this kid is taking a medication that has not been prescibed for him. Bad idea. <br /><br />Canada banned Adderall for a period in the recent past due to concerns about sudden deaths in people taking that class of medications. Within the past day or so the FDA has (finally) decided that there is a concern and is advocating adding warning to labels for these drugs. Given recent ethics difficulties in the drug industry, the relatively lackluster levels of diligance in post-approval drug monitoring, and informaiton on significant financial conflicts of interest among FDA employees, my bias would be to give the warnings a close look in considering the risks and benefits of these medications. If this kid is taking Adderall in hope of improving erg scores and has no therapeutic need for it then it seems an easy decision. Unneeded medication . . . essentially cheating . . . not prescribed . . . risk of cardiac failure . . . erg testing . . . He needs to worry about natural selection more than team selection.<br /><br />I hope his coach makes it clear that he will be dropped from the team if he does not stop use. Otherwise, one has to wonder if he will end up as a statistic or cautionary tale. I'm surprised that his teammates would tolerate his lack of integrity in trying to find a short cut for performance. <br /><br />It sounds like you're in an awkward position knowing this person. Even though it may be a hard thing to do, I hope you let his coach know and make the dangers clear. You may save a life.<br /><br />Good luck!<br /> </td></tr></table><br />it is actually one of my kind of sort of friends that does it as a way to get high<br /><br />im pretty sure im the only one he has told and im not going to tell anyone else because i gave him my word<br /><br />i think ill just tell him that it could kill him (hes not dumb) and get high off of weed if he has to get high... like every other teen <br /><br />thanks for your response though<br />

[[old] SlugButt]

<br />Good for you, and best of luck. On the brighter side, if he decides not to change what he's doing maybe he'd let you take a life insurance policy out on him so you can make some money! (yeah, okay. Sick joke.)

[[old] Ben Rea]

wow thats intense...