Faced with increased workloads towards the end of the semester, some students may be inclined to use study drugs to aid with writing late-night essays and studying for tests.

Adderall, Ritalin and similar types of medications are most frequently prescribed to people who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These drugs are amphetamines, or stimulants, and work by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

While it seems contrary to increase dopamine for someone who is trying to focus, it actually has the opposite effect. People with ADHD are always seeking stimulation, so with the medication, minor distractions are less likely to take their attention and they can focus on studying or whatever it is they need to do.

In Pipe Dream’s drug survey, 304 people, or 26.6 percent of the 1143 who participated said they use some form of study drug without a prescription. The reasons and frequency of this vary — but cramming and casual studying top the list of reasons for using these drugs.

Dave Werner, a psychology professor at BU, has taught courses on drugs and behavior. He said that while these drugs can help those they are prescribed to, they can have harmful effects on people who take them for other reasons.

“These substances are being prescribed for individuals who have a chemical imbalance, that is helping to restore that chemical imbalance,” Werner said. “People who are taking it who may not need it may be looking for a quick fix for an ‘enhancement,’ but there can be deleterious effects associated therein.”

According to Werner, the most common negative effects after taking the drug are sleep deprivation and anhedonia — the inability to feel pleasure. While these drugs aren’t addictive in the traditional sense, when taken frequently it can become hard to perform at the level a student is used to without them.

“People who have taken these, when they’re off of it, actually have an inability for memory recall, and it gets to the point where people continue to take them even to perform at a base level,” Werner said. “So you can get addicted to them from a performance perspective.”

Most people surveyed claimed to only take study drugs a couple of times a year, but 13.1 percent said that they take them at least once a month. Madeline Bay, the deputy chief of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, said that it is hard for officers to judge the prevalence of study drugs on campus because most often they encounter them while they are in a student’s room for another reason. However, she said that there are risks associated with the drugs, and students who have previously undiagnosed health problems could be at risk.

“The main danger has to do with the students’ health,” Bay wrote in an email. “Many times students are taking prescription drugs that haven’t been prescribed to them personally — therefore they don’t know what the effects really are, how the drug will affect them, and if there are any dangers to them due to allergies, mixing them with other medications they have or side effects due to any medical conditions they have.”

According to Garrett Fitzgerald, the director of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program at BU, it is very normal for students to have trouble concentrating. However, correct study habits such as consistent sleep, exercise and healthy diets are much more important than taking stimulants.

“What I see as the biggest concern is the misconception of what a study drug would do for you,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s not going to help you study. It might help you stay awake, it might help you focus. But if you’re studying in ways that are ineffective, it’s not going to increase your productivity.”