I will swear by d-amphetamine (adderall, XR, etc)) when it comes to improving academic performance, attention span, and focus in medical school. My marks are premier because of this drug. However, people who do decide to use it need to exercise strong caution and inform themselves of the negatives of the drug, and ways to counteract those negatives. The negatives are not only physical, but used the wrong way, they can HURT your performance.

The first thing that you need to realize while on Adderall is that your metabolism is boosted dramatically. This aids in "overclocking your processor," but also comes with negative side effects like overheating, fatigue, increased rate of mistakes, and dehydration. These are all prevented or lessened when you eat an adequate amount of nutrients (vitamins, calories) to counteract that. However, paradoxically, Adderall DECREASES your appetite,and many people therefore put themselves in a spot worse than the one they started by simply not eating, or eating very little. This causes your body to be forced to digest itself, and release toxins into your blood stream that can hurt your concentration and decrease your brains accuracy.

The most important things to remember when using Adderall to improve cognition:
1) Know your body, know your dosage
20mg for one person may be the equivalent to 40 for another, and 10 for another. If you are using it for academic performance, it is likely that you are not a doctor or never got a doctors advice as to how to dose yourself. If you are bellow 155 lbs, start with 10mg, and work your way up to a sweet spot that improves cognition. Do not go over 30mg. If you are above 155 lbs, start with 10mg, work your way up, do not go over 40mg (this may be stretched SLIGHTLY for very large and heavy people). Once you hit your sweet spot, after you have done it for a while, you will notice the euphoria go away. Many recreational users will "step" their dosage, increasing it each time their tolerance increases. However, you are not a recreational user. The great thing about adderall is that even after the euphoric effects are tolerated, the attention-span effects never build tolerance. Once you find your sweet spot dosage, ALWAYS resist the urge to step it up a notch when you feel it isnt working. If you are absolutely SURE it stopped working, discontinue it for a period of time no shorter than 2 weeks, and that will allow your tolerance to drop.

2) Stay nutritious
Anyone who has ever taken Adderall knows about its bad side effect of appetite suppression. Some people enjoy this effect, while others do not like it, but universally, I cant say how many people have quite literally starved themselves to failure on adderall. No matter how good you think you may be on adderall and no food, you will be much better on adderall and food. My routine when I decide to take adderall is to take an Emergen-C vitamin supplement before I take my adderall, and the same on the comedown. I eat a hardy breakfast before I take the adderall, and I force myself to eat foods high in nutrition during lunch. Mostly these include leafy vegetables, fruits, and a good intake of carbs for cheap calories.

3) Take Breaks
Always take breaks whenever you dont need adderall. Its fine to go on a week-long binge, but you should not binge any longer than that. The negatives of adderall increase over time of usage, and furthermore, adderall stifles creativity through the implementation of rigid, straightforward interpretations of everything. There are times where lack of over-focus may be beneficial to you, and therefore, adderall is not the right option. Its up to you to make that call. However, breaks will reduce the chance of tolerance and allow your body to recover from its increased metabolism. On your break days, eat a LOT of food to make up for any deficits incurred, bonus points if your food is healthy food.

4) SLEEP!
Your body needs sleep. Don't use adderall to stay up all night and then go to a test. Trust me on this, adderall stimulates the brain, but lack of sleep kills neural pathways and decreases your chances of association of a correct answer with a question.