Psychosocial functioning among college students who misuse stimulants versus other drugs

The misuse of prescription stimulants (e.g., Ritalin, Adderall) is a large and growing problem on college campuses. Emerging research examines not only the demographic predictors of stimulant misuse but also the potentially role that stimulant misuse plays in a college student's overall functioning and mental health. To better understand the experiences specifically linked with stimulant misuse rather than substance use more broadly, we tested whether psychosocial functioning differed across four groups of college students: those who do not misuse stimulants or other hard drugs; those who misuse both stimulants and other hard drugs; those who misuse stimulants but not other hard drugs; and those who misuse other hard drugs but not stimulants (N = 1534; 40.3% male; 33.9% ethnic minority). Those who misused stimulants reported higher levels of impulsivity, as well as substance use consequences, than those who did not use any hard drugs. However, these differences were exacerbated among those who misused stimulants and other hard drugs. Taken together, these findings suggest that stimulant misuse typically occurs in a broader pattern of substance use, and that stimulant misusers generally fall along a continuum of substance use severity in terms of psychosocial functioning.