<p>Just wondering...</p>
<p>Do any Caltech students have ADD/ADHD and get medication for it? And if so, is ADD medication abuse common in Caltech or not? And is it against the Honor code?</p>
<p>Oh and, do the overwhelming majority of Caltech students tend to be INTP or INTJ on myers-Briggs (just an impression)?</p>
<p>There are students with ADD/ADHD, some get medication, abuse is not widespread from any indication that I have seen. Presumably using drugs illegally to get an advantage academically would be considered an Honor Code violation.</p>
<p>Most Caltech students probably don't think very much of personality tests. There is a fair number of extroverts, contrary to stereotype.</p>
<p>Oh, and are there any other mental illnesses that tend to be common among caltech students?</p>
<p>Interest in physics?</p>
<p>It does not seem to me that there is a particularly different incidence of mental illness from the general population, though stress-related problems (insomnia) might be slightly more common than average... but this would probably be true at peer institutions like MIT, too. The counseling center provides therapy with no preset limit for people who have psychological issues.</p>
<p>I remember a person once postulating that Caltech students were more likely to have Aspergers syndrome than the rest of the population. It's possible, though I don't know if anyone has ever done a study. I don't think there are any mental illnesses that tend to be common among Caltech students compared to other colleges. </p>
<p>Abuse of drugs is not against the Honor Code, but doing so in order to get better grades is. However, no one would ever get BoCed for it -- instead we'd ask the Deans to assist them in finding help.</p>
<p>If you have questions about the counseling services here that you don't want to ask on the board, feel free to send me a personal message. I've made use of their services in the past and they have always been helpful.</p>
<p>Drugs improve mental performance? I wish someone had told me this earlier...</p>
<p>The number of extroverts at Caltech certainly surprised me the first time I visited. Everyone seemed so incredibly willing to help everywhere my family went. I was told that there are plenty of bitter people at Caltech during Prefrosh Weekend, but I never actually met any of them. People at Caltech were far less nerdy (but just as quirky) as I had imagined.</p>
<p>And as for drugs that improve mental performance, we're not allowed to take ampakine</a> CX717 if it's found safe for human use? Damn.</p>
<p>
[quote]
we're not allowed to take ampakine CX717 if it's found safe for human use?
[/quote]
If it's legal and safe, it <em>probably</em> wouldn't be against the honor code to take it to help you out academically. </p>
<p>The use of drugs for academics is actually kind of an interesting issue. We all agree that taking speed right before a test is definitely a violation, but we also agree that taking caffeine is certainly not. In between those two extremes, it comes down to things like a) legality, b) safety, c) availability to students, d) cost, e) type/strength of effects.</p>
<p>Hmm, well, there's modafinil</a> (Provigil), which is not exactly legal, but much safer than amphetamine (no reported cases of overdose, apparently non-addictive, no jitter/few sympathomimetic effects), and with little in the way of effects beyond increased wakefulness. I'd think that it still provides an unfair advantage, in that they can spend more time studying, but so does caffeine, although perhaps to a lesser extent.</p>