Use of ADHD Drugs among College Students

Diagnosis and medical treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among young people has risen considerably over the the last several decades, but little is known about use and misuse of ADHD drugs among college students. This population is of particular interest given that students may use ADHD drugs to improve academic performance even without a diagnosis or prescription (Chen et al., 2016). We use data from the 2007-16 Health Minds Study, a survey of college students across many campuses, to examine trends in ADHD diagnoses as well as prescribed and unprescribed use of ADHD drugs among this population. We then examine determinants of ADHD drug use with a focus on state-level policies that affect the likelihood that individuals were 1) diagnosed with ADHD and 2) treated with ADHD medication at an earlier age. Preliminary results suggest that policies regarding the compensation of k-12 public schools for individuals with learning disabilities, which were shown to affect ADHD diagnosis and medication of children by Morrill (2018), also affect the likelihood and frequency of ADHD drug use by college students.