Drugs like Ritalin are popular among students as study aids. They boost concentration, but while they help people with ADHD feel calmer, people without ADHD report feeling more alert and energetic. In a survey conducted a few years ago, 10 per cent of UM students admitted to having taken “study drugs”, says Anke Sambeth, professor of Educational Neuroscience.
Sambeth and her colleagues have previously investigated Ritalin’s effects on memory. “Participants were asked to memorise a list of thirty simple words. They turned out to perform better after taking the drug. But that’s very different from sitting a real exam at MECC, so we wanted to see what would happen if we made the task more complex. This is relevant from an educational perspective as well – if Ritalin truly does help students get better grades, it could have policy implications.”
Simulate an exam
The researchers tried to simulate an exam as realistically as possible. “Obviously, you can’t just give half of your Psychology students Ritalin and the other half a placebo – that would be unethical. So we wrote four texts on topics the participants knew nothing about. They were given limited time to study them and were tested on the material the following day.”
Some participants took Ritalin before studying, others before sitting the test, and a third received a placebo. “We wanted to see if it mainly affected memorising new information while studying or recalling it during the test.” But the drug turned out to have no effect whatsoever. “All three groups scored the same.”
Risky
Sambeth, also in her capacity as vice-dean for education at FPN, hopes students will take this as yet another reason to steer clear of study drugs. “This is just one study, and we’re the first to test it this way. But the idea of ‘It won’t hurt, so why not?’ doesn’t hold for Ritalin. It raises your heart rate and blood pressure, which can be risky in the long term. Chronic use can cause depressive feelings and even make you feel suicidal. If you want to feel more alert for an exam, drinking a strong cup of coffee beforehand will do the trick.”