Using substances to endure an entire night’s studies is
not only a potential health risk and illegal, according to the doctors. It is also inefficient from a studying standpoint.
Håkan Widener is medical chief at the Department of Neurology at Lund’s general hospital, and he has carried out research projects on the usage of drugs and substances for non-medical reasons.
“It’s not as widespread in Sweden, or even in Europe as it is in America, but it is a general problem.”
The Department of Neurology at the general hospital in particular prescribes the most amount of modiodal, which is the drug that Erik takes. They prescribe it for patients with narcolepsy or multiple sclerosis. Håkan Widener regards consumption of medical substances for serious neurological diseases as a means of enhancing study endurance as a problem.
“It has a certain addictive effect, and if you buy it on-line you can never be certain of what the pills actually contain”, he says.
But the biggest problem, according to Widener is the fact that this substance actually does work for staying up late and studying for a longer period of time. “It’s a fundamental misconception to believe that it would be better to sleep less. Sleep is the most crucial thing if you want to be proficient in your studies, and that is something you definitely shouldn’t cut down on.”
According to Widener, several medical studies also show that this kind of substance neither improves your susceptibility or study results.
“If you take modiodal you might be able to study for an additional 10-15 hours. But in order for it to work, you still need to sleep in-between.”
Also, the ones taking this substance for their studies often take much higher doses than the ones who have it prescribed for their illness, which increases the risk to suffer from unpleasant side-effects.
“We prescribe standard doses of 200 milligrams, and in some cases up to 500. The ones taking the substance for their studies might take 1000 milligrams or even more”, says Widener who doesn’t believe that medical substances are the solution for students with tight time slots.
“If you are not suffering from theses diseases you shouldn’t get a hold of these substances”, says Håkan Widener.
Read also:
Lund students take study drugs
Text: Tor Gasslander
Translation: Maximilian Aleman Tennell
