Psychostimulants – a boon or bane during examinations

Psychostimulants or neuroenhancers have been used by students to increase their performance in pursuit for higher grades. Our study aimed to assess the effect of stimulants on test anxiety and psychological distress in medical students. The students were approached with self-administered questionnaire for Test Anxiety, Psychological Distress and use of stimulants during the period of examinations. The stimulants were categorized according to their average caffeine content into tea or qahwa, instant coffee and energy drinks with two other categories that is stimulant drugs use and no stimulant use. The respondents were female medical students from study year 1-5. About 84% students used stimulants, of which maximum were coffee users 64.6% followed by tea or qahwa 38.6%, energy drinks 13.86% and stimulant drugs 7.8%. The percentage of students taking stimulant drugs showed an increasing trend from year 1 (3.96%) to year 5 (11.27%) while those who did not use any type of stimulant decreased from year1 to year 5. The mean test anxiety and mean psychological distress was highest for energy drink users followed by stimulant drug users. Energy drink was positive correlated with test anxiety with statistical significance indicating the detrimental effect of high concentration of caffeine in it. Test anxiety and psychological distress was higher in students using stimulants compared those who did not. Stimulants though believed to enhance performance and alertness, may actually be disadvantageous when used in higher doses as it increases test anxiety and psychological distress which may decrease performance.