Amphetamine use in America's workforce
This is an important topic, not only from the perspective of drug dependency and substance use disorders (SUDs) research, but also re: potentially misleading statements which may discourage use among people who could benefit from stimulant-class medication.<p>I have treated several hundred individuals with amphetamine, methylphenidate and related compounds, primarily for ADHD in adults and adolescents.  Everyone should know that ADHD is a very <i>common</i> disorder, affecting &gt;=4% of all adults.  It is a disabling condition in many, perhaps the majority, of those who manifest its symptoms.<p>A troubling aspect is that only about 1&#x2F;5 of sufferers seek treatment, and often treatment is suboptimal for a variety of reasons.  Staying on topic, the most effective medication strategies remain the &quot;stimulant&quot; drugs.<p>The article contains errors re: drug effects and history.  First of all amphetamine was synthesized well before 1929.  What we now call amphetamine was created by a Romanian chemistry Ph.D. candidate, Lazăr Edeleanu, in Berlin, in 1887.  It was rediscovered in 1927 by Gordon Alles who was unable to patent the compound because of Edeleanu&#x27;s work 40 years earlier.<p>Amphetamine was initially marketed in the 1930&#x27;s as Benzedrine.  Significantly the remarkable efficacy of amphetamine in what&#x27;s now call ADHD was described in <i>1937</i>, and to this day no other class of drug has been demonstrated to be as effective as the stimulants.<p>As commented here, stimulant class medications have different effects in those who need them.  At the optimal dose, ADHD patients are <i>not</i> &quot;amped up&quot;, in fact typically feel calmer, thoughts and actions more controlled and deliberate.  In people who <i>don&#x27;t</i> have ADHD may indeed experience &quot;stimulating&quot; effects.<p>Furthermore, ADHD adults perform much better with appropriate treatment, whereas unaffected users experience a boost only with simple tasks.  Stimulant use will cause <i>decreased</i> performance on cognitively demanding tasks.  While college students are known to seek out amphetamines in order to &quot;study better&quot; for their final exams, in fact it&#x27;s much more likely to decrement their results, myths notwithstanding.<p>Not to say that drug abuse is not a serious matter.  Ethical practitioners prescribe stimulant class medications with great care to assure correct diagnoses and appropriate prescribing practices.  No question that not everyone with a license is ethical. I firmly support taking steps to put those deliberately contributing to drug abuse out of business, and into jail.<p>It&#x27;s imperative to avoid throwing babies out with the bathwater.  Stimulant medications are an extremely useful tool when used along with due vigilance for misuse.  Patients in my practice were carefully monitored, and were informed drug misuse could not be taken lightly. Over the years there were a few who were deemed too irresponsible to continue treatment with the medication.