Skyrocketing demand for ADHD meds is straining the U.S. health care system

> “A lot of my patients would hold up their phone to the camera and be like, ‘Here’s this video that I saw on TikTok and this is why I have ADHD,’” said Dr. Sasha Hamdani. She is a psychiatrist and ADHD specialist who also is a content creator about the condition with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok.

> Hamdani estimates that about 50% of patients who inquire about the condition actually yield an ADHD diagnosis.

That would be weird. Part of a ADHD diagnosis is a in depth differential, digging deep into the patients psychological backstory. It also doesn't help that there isn't a clear agreement on the signs of the disorder, going so far that the validity of a diagnosis becomes really murky unless a patient has most obvious symptoms.

> “Logistically, it’s been a nightmare for patients and providers,” Hamdani said. ”[Stimulant medications] are so highly controlled, you can’t just transfer it [to a different pharmacy]. You have to cancel a script. You have to then go find another pharmacy that has it. By that time, it might not be filled because other people have filled it there. It’s a lot of logistical shifting and work on that front. And that’s extremely frustrating for the patient.”

Ah yes, the joys of the american health care system. Instead of fixing patients having to go through unecessary hoops in order to fill legitimate prescriptions (i.e. by tracking, I dunno, the controlled substance from when it's produced), we ought to blame patients with a diagnosis instead.

> October that there was a shortage of both the brand name and generic form of Adderall in the U.S.

This is a bit misleading. There was a shortage for instant release variants, as far as I'm aware the extended release supply was fine.

It's a pain in the ass disorder. It sucks talking to people that self-diagnose because they haven't gone through the pain that is getting diagnosed. It sucks dealing with the meds, dealing with providers who have to be suspicious that you're just trying to get diet meth. It sucks dealing with the population that either doesn't believe adhd even exists, or that you're just being lazy.

It's not really clear what conversation this article is trying to spark, though.

> “Logistically, it’s been a nightmare for patients and providers,” Hamdani said. ”[Stimulant medications] are so highly controlled, you can’t just transfer it [to a different pharmacy]. You have to cancel a script. You have to then go find another pharmacy that has it. By that time, it might not be filled because other people have filled it there. It’s a lot of logistical shifting and work on that front. And that’s extremely frustrating for the patient.”

My wife has ADHD and this has indeed been incredibly frustrating. The hurdles you have to jump through are ridiculous. Her last refill, she called ahead to make sure they had stock, then showed up, but it was 30 days after she had filled the last prescription, and their rule was actually you have to wait 30 days from when you picked up, not from when it was filled, even though that is the date on the bottle. Then, of course, the next day they're out, but like it says, you can't just transfer it to another store. You need to cancel, go back to your provider, and they have to send the prescription to another store.

One trick that helped her is to avoid rich neighborhoods. Unfortunately, that means she needs to go further, but pharmacies in poor neighborhoods are very rarely out of Adderall. It's overwhelmingly rich people being diagnosed and treated.

You also can't fill out of state, so we have to plan travel around making sure she can get a refill before we go, and when she used to have to travel for work, I'd need to pick up refills for her and mail them to her hotel.

Is there something that makes ADHD meds harder to make and ramp up production? It seems like TikTok and Instagram in particular are convincing young adults that they all have ADHD or Asperger syndrome leading to a shortage in relatively recent history.