Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 4-30-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Pharmacy Administration

First Advisor

Sujith Ramachandran

Second Advisor

Erin Holmes

Third Advisor

Kaustuv Bhattacharya

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Objective: The principal objective in this study is to identify the contextual factors predicting the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants among college students who nonmedically use prescription stimulants (NMUPS) for academic reasons.

Participants: 470 college-aged students from varying undergraduate classes

Methods: This study utilized an observational design, which consisted of repeated surveys administered to a sample of undergraduate students at the University of Mississippi. Descriptive statistics were used to assess frequencies of contextual factors regarding the background and exam surveys. Logistic regression models assessed the correlations between the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants and various contextual factors.

Results: The percentage of survey respondents that reported NMUPS in the past year was nearly one third of the respondent population (31.28%); 36.13% of people with an ADHD diagnosis and 29.67% of people without ADHD reported NMUPS. Additionally, respondents were six times more likely to nonmedically use a prescriptions stimulant if they were given an opportunity to nonmedically use the prescription stimulant.

Conclusions: In this study, it was found that the opportunity to nonmedically use prescription stimulants in relation to exam periods was significant. Knowing this key factor can help college administrators develop different programs to decrease the nonmedical misuse of prescription stimulants on college campuses.

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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