SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Prescriptions for Adderall, the medication used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, have risen more than 30% over the last five years.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
Now families are having a hard time getting the pills for their children, as a shortage is on the rise across the United States.
Jamie Romani is a nurse specializing in pediatric developmental medicine at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. She told KCBS Radio's Alice Wertz on "As Prescribed" a shortage of all ADHD medications, including Adderall, began in October of 2022.
"We started to get updates from the pharmacy that were saying 'this medication is on backorder,' which happens frequently with medication, but then we started to notice that it wasn't just Adderall, it was all medications in that class of central nervous system stimulants that we prescribe for ADHD," she explained.
Romani and her team at UCSF tried to get to the bottom of the backorders, and found that there was a rise in ADHD diagnoses over the COVID-19 pandemic, both in adult patients and pediatric patients.
She said it's easy to deduce how this rise in diagnoses occurred as when at-home school and work became a norm, parents were watching their child interact with the classroom each day. "During the pandemic with virtual learning, they're in your living room doing school, so you see that they're distracted, that they're running around, that they're not able to focus," she said.
Because ADHD medications are DEA controlled substances, the amount of pills out there had trouble keeping up with the number of prescriptions.
For families or adults who are dealing with this shortage, Romani recommended keeping track of the medication that you have. "If you have a 30 day supply, when you get down to that last seven days, let your provider know," she advised. Romani also recommended trying multiple pharmacies to track down the prescription. "Try different places than you would normally go," she said.
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
