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Adderall shortage causing long-term problems for students with no end in sight
Parents and students are stuck in a web of confusion and frustration amid an Adderall shortage that has lasted more than a year, with grades slipping and caretakers driving for hours to fill prescr…
thehill.com
Parents and students are stuck in a web of confusion and frustration amid an Adderall shortage that has lasted more than a year, with grades slipping and caretakers driving for hours to fill prescriptions.
While ADHD can present in many forms, it commonly hurts children’s ability to concentrate in class and focus on their assignments, with the long-term effects showing up in academic performance.
“Their grades are suffering, they’re falling behind academically and they’re losing some motivation,” said Parker Houston, a pediatric psychologist and owner of Central Ohio Pediatric Behavioral Health who has been working with students on coping strategies during the shortage.
With little hope for relief in sight, professionals are urging better communication among doctors, parents and schools to create an environment that can best help students who are missing their medication.
I wonder how much of the shortage is being driven by people (who may not necessarily need it) getting prescriptions for it due to it gaining some swift popularity. (Similar to what we've seen recently with Ozempic...where there was an influx of people using it in order to "drop 5-10 lbs" instead of the usage being reserved for more serious cases of obesity and diabetes issues)
This piece from the NY Times is from 7 years ago, but the author touches on some important facets.
Generation Adderall (Published 2016)
Like many of my friends, I spent years using prescription stimulants to get through school and start my career. Then I tried to get off them.
www.nytimes.com
Its (then) growing popularity on campuses as well as clinicians loosening their diagnostic criteria for what constituted "Severity of ADHD worth medicating for" led to widespread use and some abuse (some of which involved people getting hooked on it)
It went from 5 million prescriptions issued in 2000, to 10 million by 2005, to 16 million by 2012, to 42 million by 2019.
And the sharp uptick didn't stop there.
It should also be noted that, according to more rigorous studies by the NIH, the prevalence rate of any level of ADHD (much less, severe enough that it needs chemical intervention instead of cognitive behavior approaches) is 6.1% among Children and 4.4% among adults. Numbers like that don't seem to reconcile cleanly with kinds of prescribing volume referenced above.