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Seven million people who have been prescribed drugs to battle the unmanageable cacophony that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder brings to their minds now face another hurdle: getting those drugs at the pharmacy.
Palm Beach County pharmacist Nirav Pate finds himself fielding nearly a dozen phone calls a day from patients frantically trying to fill prescriptions. The owner of Robalo Pharmacy says his suppliers give him only enough to fill one or two a day. "It’s rationed out. The problem is big. It is huge," Pate said. "This is one of the biggest shortages right now."
And health authorities nationally expect the problem to worsen through the holidays and into the new year.
The shortages were first seen last spring, when one of the most commonly prescribed medicines, Adderall, went generic, said Ruth Hughes, chief executive of the national advocacy group Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. "There were lots of problems: distribution issues; issues of production involving the active pharmaceutical ingredient," she said. "We talked to a number of people at the time who thought it was going to be a short-term problem, but it has continued over the summer and recently it got worse."
Walgreens and Publix pharmacies confirm that they are experiencing some shortages in these drugs. Sometimes the drug is available, but not in the prescribed dose. For example, the shorter-acting drugs seem to be a bigger issue, Hughes said.
Adderall has been listed among those in shortage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration off and on since 2009, said Erin Fox, who tracks the shortage data as manager of the drug information service at the University of Utah. Then this month, the active ingredient in Ritalin and its generic counterparts, methylphenidate, joined the list.
The reasons for this shortage, like the reasons for the myriad of other drug shortages nationally, are difficult to pinpoint, Fox said. Companies cite increased demand, problems in distribution and tight Drug Enforcement Administration rules on how much of the active ingredient each maker can use in a given year.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/25/2518087/ddention-deficit-drugs-in-short.html#ixzz1ejgFGcq6
Palm Beach County pharmacist Nirav Pate finds himself fielding nearly a dozen phone calls a day from patients frantically trying to fill prescriptions. The owner of Robalo Pharmacy says his suppliers give him only enough to fill one or two a day. "It’s rationed out. The problem is big. It is huge," Pate said. "This is one of the biggest shortages right now."
And health authorities nationally expect the problem to worsen through the holidays and into the new year.
The shortages were first seen last spring, when one of the most commonly prescribed medicines, Adderall, went generic, said Ruth Hughes, chief executive of the national advocacy group Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. "There were lots of problems: distribution issues; issues of production involving the active pharmaceutical ingredient," she said. "We talked to a number of people at the time who thought it was going to be a short-term problem, but it has continued over the summer and recently it got worse."
Walgreens and Publix pharmacies confirm that they are experiencing some shortages in these drugs. Sometimes the drug is available, but not in the prescribed dose. For example, the shorter-acting drugs seem to be a bigger issue, Hughes said.
Adderall has been listed among those in shortage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration off and on since 2009, said Erin Fox, who tracks the shortage data as manager of the drug information service at the University of Utah. Then this month, the active ingredient in Ritalin and its generic counterparts, methylphenidate, joined the list.
The reasons for this shortage, like the reasons for the myriad of other drug shortages nationally, are difficult to pinpoint, Fox said. Companies cite increased demand, problems in distribution and tight Drug Enforcement Administration rules on how much of the active ingredient each maker can use in a given year.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/25/2518087/ddention-deficit-drugs-in-short.html#ixzz1ejgFGcq6
If the gov was more accepting of what is considered "alternative" medicine, we might have quite a few people using certain strains of cannabis in moderation to combat ADD/ADHD. I myself have ADD pretty bad but I know that stimulants aren't a permanent cure. At least I don't believe they can be used every day for extended periods of time without some sort of negative effects.
