Preventing and Reducing Non-Medical Prescription Stimulant Use: An Intervention Study

Numerous studies have shown that nonmedical prescription stimulant use (NMPSU), which refers to the use of drugs like Adderall or Ritalin without a prescription, is quickly becoming one of the most prevalent illicit activities on college campuses. In a recent study on Trinity’s campus, 37% of students endorsed misusing prescription stimulants in the last year. Not all students are at equal risk, however. Risk factors for NMPSU include: being Caucasian, Greek involvement, low GPA (less than 3.5), binge drinking, marijuana use, and low self-efficacy to avoid using. Accordingly, we screened students for these risk factors and engaged students with two or more risk factors, or those who reported a history of NMPSU. Because only one intervention has been reported on in the literature, we utilized motivational interviewing (MI), a strategy that has been used to reduce heavy drinking in college students, in an attempt to reduce NMPSU and to potentially change NMPSU-related attitudes. MI works by “lowering patience resistance, allowing patients to arrive at their own decisions about the severity of their problem and a possible need for change” (Foote et al., 1999). Seventy participants screened in and 56 (80%) of the participants completed the 1-month follow-up survey. The intervention did not have an effect on study self-efficacy, or expectations for cognitive enhancement, feelings of guilt and dependence related to NMPSU, social enhancement expectancies, and concerns about anxiety and arousal from NMPSU. There was a trend towards intervention group participants being more knowledgeable about the side effects of stimulants when misused. Implications for future research are discussed