Insight: Shortage of ADHD drug Adderall seen persisting

“Symptoms include difficulty staying focused, hyperactivity and difficulty controlling behavior. If they are not properly medicated, children with ADHD may act out and be held back in class; adolescents might engage in impulsive, risky behavior; adults are at greater risk of being fired from their jobs.” Yes let’s make sure were all properly medicated so were able to fit more easily into our proper roles in society, so we do the correct things- don’t step out of line there!

America 2012 – Too ADHD to focus on ensuring a supply of ADHD treatments.

Why are we medicating our kids so much? Lack of will/skill when it comes to parenting? Sigh.

This explains the stupidity on Facebook.

Adderall is the diet drug of choice for the Los Angeles women…No wonder there is a shortage.

I dont trust ANYTHING the drug companies say. They are SELLING DRUGS. THAT IS WHAT THEY DO. SELL DRUGS.

They have their army of “drug reps” who daily go to doctors offices and MISINFORM DOCTORS and PASS OUT SAMPLES so they will DISTRIBUTE THE DRUGS.

Much of the psychiactric drugs are VERY DANGEROUS. PLEASE watch out for BENZOS LIKE XANAX*…ITS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE.
Doctors have been misinformed by drug companies.
*xanax=alprozalam
*lorazepam=ativan
*klonopin=clonozepam
*valium..yes valium as well

It’s a miracle the human race even survived before amphetamines and pharma saved our children. Hallelujah! Dear God, won’t someone step up and give those poor, downtrodden companies what they need?

Why is it necessary to put so many of our children on “highly addictive” drugs? Something is very wrong here.

Let’s get 9% of our society hooked on amphetamines so that our teachers don’t have to deal with alternative learning profiles and our employers don’t have to worry about discriminating against alternative psychology. What good is it to the machinations of this great capitalist nation if we can’t keep all our little workers in line and in their cubicles? It’s about time the 9% wake up adn start insisting on recognition as part of the fabric of humanity and not just some anomaly to be medicated.

Jacking up the price as well as making the meds difficult to locate is a kick in the teeth for those who need the benefit of the meds in order to do their jobs. It is torture plain and simple. Will others experience (in due course) same treatment for blood pessure or diabetes meds?

IMO, the alleged shortage of necessary compounds to manufacture generic drugs is the only thing the pharma companies ARE manufacturing. Generic Adderall costs approximately $70.00 for a 30 day supply, depending on daily dosage. Adderall XR, Vyvanse and other “Brand Name” substitutions are two to three times the cost. To the best of my knowledge, there is no shortage of the alternatives; rather odd, assuming they require the same compounds.

Those of us who suffer from ADHD and have no no health insurance are being forced to spend what little money we have to continue taking our medication or go without. The assertion Adderall is being abused is legitimate. Many large colleges and universities however, have employed stringent protocols in an effort to minimize this issue. But many people have a legitimate need for this medication. My daughter and I suffer from ADHD, not uncommon as it tends to run in families.

If this is really a matter of the DEA limiting supplies, why haven’t they done so with the more costly “brand name” ‘alternatives? Why haven’t they employed the same protocols with drugs such as Oxycontin? Oxycontin and it’s alternatives are abused far more than Adderall. Is it possible there are no expensive alternatives??

The pharma companies have one of, if not the largest lobbying effort on the Hill. Tell me they can’t influence a few of their “pals” to resolve this alleged “government-sponsored” shortage. My community and my neighborhood were decimated by a large pharma company’s ‘business’ decision. I ain’t buyin’ it.

Profits will continue to overrule the medical needs of patients, the lives of former employees, and the communities in which they lived. Quoting the late Molly Ivans, “That’s bidness.”

As a person who has ADHD and takes this drug, this problem is very frustrating. Due to the amount of high-school and college students who overly abuse this drug, the gov. won’t allow the manufacturers get enough ingredients to keep up with demand, wow, this really just sucks cause the rest of us who actually DO have ADHD and actually DO need this drug can’t get it!! Very frustrating!!

Drug shortages in America– amazing! This story should have been headlined, “What happens when federal regulatory agencies start imitating North Korea.”

@USAPragmatist

A hundred years ago there were very few cases of what would today be classified as ADHD. What’s changed in the interval is the hyperstimulation American children receive every waking moment of their lives, a combination of chemicals in our foods, a society which thinks in sound bites, and children’s TV programming which rams bright colors, loud noises and jump cuts in both the programming and the commercials. Read C M Kornbluth’s classic 1951 short story, “The Marching Morons” to see where all this is leading. Gradually reflective thinking, logical debate and long-range planning will be eliminated. You can see it beginning today with the abrupt rise and fall of Republican candidate-like entities.

There are too many teenagers without ADHD taking it that I am aware of.

This problem is not just effecting those with ADHD/ADD. My husband is in his 60′s and has severe OSA and takes Dexedrine 5 mg 4x a day. He literally can’t function without his medicine. He has had major surgery (mandibular advancement) and he sleeps with a bipap machine as well. Even with all of these treatments his doctors know he would not be able to drive to the grocery store without his medication.
The shortage of adderall has caused doctor’s to prescribe dexedrine for those patients instead. So now my husband can’t find a pharmacy in Atlanta who has any dexedrine. For some patients, like my husband, this is crippling. He can’t drive or function without his medication. It would be too dangerous. So we wait. The pharmacy told him they won’t know when they will get anymore Dexedrine until after the New Year.

I use to pay $ 38.00 dollars for my adderall.i dont have any kind of insurance,so my drug store gave me a discount card 5 years ago so i did’nt have to pay full price.but 3 months ago when i got my last refill of adderall the price was $ 138.00 and the guy at walgreens told me that the reason why it was costing me a $100.00 more then before was because of {supply & demand} !!!! …”I” dont think we should have to pay a higher price for or med’s…..SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE SOME KIND OF …INITIATIVE..AND STOP THIS.BECAUSE I SEE IT AS {Price Gouging}” I” FEEL that it is morally wrong for sellers to take advantage of buyer’s vulnerability and increased demand…I had to stop taking my {add-med’s} because the price went from{ $38.00 a month to $138.00}

What we need is a shortage of psychiatrists.

Students nowadays are just sad. Use your god-given talents. Drugs aren’t going to help you in the long-run.

ADHD , is a label. All human traits are individual, no more no less. None are no more or no less “normal” ! Look for the innovators , the inventors, the philosophers the future

you people obviously don’t have ADD. I am 37 and have taken adderal for the past two years and it has completely changed my life for the better.

As a pharmacist for over 35 years, I have never seen a time when so many drugs have been unavailable. It’s not just a regulatory problem (although the DEA quota system is largeley to blame here). As some commenters have noted, the shortages are all with generic forms of the drugs. No brand name drugs are in short supply. It’s obvious that profitable drugs protected under patents will always be available while low margin generics go wanting. Globalized markets and distribution systems make the problem worse. In the U.S., healthcare is a business. Everything from pill production to insurance policies operate under a profit-driven market system. It’s not working.

The big increase in demand is from adults who in the past were expected to go unmedicated even though 25% of childhood ADHD sufferers have serious symptoms as adults.

While the quota system does seem to be intending to address a real problem, I think they’re really seriously overstepping their bounds if they’re deciding which manufacturers can get how much supply, and calling a shortage due to increased demand a marketing problem. They are not in a position to cast judgement on demand, that is entirely between doctors and patients.

The DEA which has more power in this country than the gestapo did in Nazi Germany. Funded with blank check by the War on Drugs and Powers above any other law enforcement agency this Fed Agency is crippling america and emptying it’s coffers. If any govt agency needs to be done away with, start here.

Maybe there is some biphetamine resin left around somewhere that would get the qualified people through college.

On Reuters this article is followed by the stock-market quotes of those who make components for this. If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about this article then you need Adderall.
But don’t worry: its showing up in the municipal waste waters so they’ll be able to just re-cycle it soon enough and the rest of you can have some.

I’ve been taking adderall for 9 years. I can’t get it for months now. I stopped taking all my meds. I don’t care anymore…..nothing makes sense.

Why are we medicating kids for something that can be cured just by letting the kids tear around outside for a few hours? ADD and ADHD are just scams to sell drugs.

Parents, just take your kids off the drugs, and use the money to enroll them in a soccer league; get them out exercising, burning off that nervous energy, and stop treating them like they’re sick. I guarantee they’ll improve, and it will be cheaper for you in the end.

It’s an ADD drug, and not just for children. It’s time that “journalists” stop adding hyperactivity to ADD automatically. ADD is not always accompanied by hyperactivity.

Your job as a writer is to INFORM people, not perpetuate misconceptions.

All Amphetamines have the potential to cause brain damage regardless of whether a person has ADHD or not.

Test scores in the USA have continued a downward slide as more and more of this Drug is prescribed. Asian Students, in Asia now score much higher on test scores, while USA teachers are much better trained.

All amphetamines have the potential to do brain damage, regardless of whether a person has ADHD or not. MRI scans of kids who have been on the drug for an extended period of time mirror the brains of amphetamine addicts. The Drug companies say that is because ADHD brains are exactly the same as Drug addict brains. Visit www.neldc.org

Most of these kids were put on ADHD drugs in grade school so they could sit still long enough to listen to a policeman lecture to them about the evils of drugs through the D.A.R.E. program. Then the kids learned on their own that they could make big bucks selling this “medicinal meth” to the high schoolers so they could snort it to get high. It is no surprise that they continue to use it in college. Our nation’s drug policy is a crock of B.S. The system favors giving physically addictive drugs like Adderall to children, while adults are penalized for using marijuana which is not physically addictive and cannot cause an overdose.

Certainly some people have severe issues and very medically managed use of amphetamines may assist. However, the problem is not just as simple as abuse by high school and college students. It’s the abuse of prescribing the drug for even mild conditions after one quick visit to the doctor. Amphetamine management should also be placed on doctors shoulders to take serious measures to ensure the need in patients. Some people amaze me when they say they really need adderall because it makes them feel great. Urban dictionary has a page on this kind of drug. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=speed

Typical stupid government idea to have DEA involved in the FDA’s business. Isn’t there anything these clowns do right – never mind, silly question.

Certainly some people have severe issues and very medically managed use of amphetamines may assist. However, the problem is not just as simple as abuse by high school and college students. It’s the abuse of prescribing the drug for even mild conditions after one quick visit to the doctor. Amphetamine management should also be placed on doctors shoulders to take serious measures to ensure the need in patients. Some people amaze me when they say they really need adderall because it makes them feel great. Urban dictionary has a page on this kind of drug. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=speed

Both the DEA and the ATF are parasitic and should be ended, their few legitimate operations folded into the supervision of the FBI.

Create the disease, give it a name, add the medication then create the shortage to run up prices. We are the most medicated country in the world and have pills for everything, even growing eyelashes. there is a pill for everything and if you think life is good we have a pill that will fix that for you too.
Listen to fast talk on the commercials, death is now a side effect and you idiots still demand the pills.

Well said Majick1.

“The chemicals are divided into five schedules. Schedule 1 drugs include illegal substances such as heroin. Scheduled II drugs, such as Adderall and other stimulants, have a medical use but a high potential for abuse. Schedule III drugs have a somewhat lower abuse potential and include the painkiller Vicodin, while Schedule IV drugs include the tranquilizers Klonopin and Ativan. Schedule V substances include cough medicines such as Robitussin.”

Information is partially inaccurate. Schedule 1 Medication have a high tendency for abuse, but no current approved medical use. They include Marijuana, Heroin, MDMA (Ecstasy), GHB, and others. Schedule 2 Medication also contain Opioid and Non-Opioid analgesics (painkillers) such as Oxycontin (oxycodone), Morphine, Demerol (meperidine), Cocaine, and others. Schedule 5 Medication have a lower risk of abuse relative to Schedule 4 Medication and contiain preparations of medication with a small amount of an opioid analgesic combined with other medications to discourage abuse such as cough medications: Phenergan with Codeine (promethazine with codeiene), Robitussin AC (guaifenesin with codeine), Anti-diarrheal: Lomotil (diphenoxylate with atropine), and the Anticonvulsant/neuropathic analgesic: Lyrica (pregabalin). Robitussin (guaifenesin) is NOT a scheduled medication is available over the counter.

-Devin C.
Certified Pharmacy Technician

Speaking of ADHD, check out this video on education which includes the use of ADHD drugs. Google “rsa education” for it. It has the title “RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms”. Very much worth a watch for people interested our current educational system.

Majick1′s verbal vomitus is the most depraved of a number of comments people have put up about this article. There are many, many people with sometimes functionally-incapacitating, socially devasting, and emotionally exhausting, frustrating, and cause for despair and relapse into severe major depressive episodes. That’s my case. I am a psychologist, and so it is particularly repulsive that anyone would be assignorant and absolutely self-centered as to write the ‘made-up condition’ etc. comments I’ve read here; the pig going by Majick1 wrote in a comment below an article that people suffering, losing enormous amounts of money and risking loss of employment because they are in crisis due to the topic of this article, that such people are “idiots..s…still demanding [their] pills.” Yes, like every psychotropic chemical our species has discovered or created ever, there is an issue of use for purposes other than the one for which Adderall has turned out to be a magic bullet for many, I.e. treating their severely-impairing disorder. Knowing nothing you glibly toss a comment telling us we have no condition. I hate big pharma more than you could possibly understand, esp. Because you’re clearly an intellectual midget and your internet braggodaccio suggests you’re undersized in other ways and overcompensating by anonymous ‘cool-guy’ attitude excrement like your comment here. You are an awful, callous person. I hope the pain felt by those of us suffering and facing months more of it even knowing that you are just an insignificant and unknowledgable worm

It is only speed get some cheaper from your local drug dealer or truck driver.

The lack of knowledge displayed in these posts are mind boggling. Brain imaging scans show differences in the functioning of those with ADHD from those who do not. ADHD is a neurobiological condition. Those who take stimulant medication for ADHD as prescribed do not suffer from addiction. Young people with ADHD who do not receive treatment are more likely to engage in substance abuse. I still long for the days when those who were ignorant on specific subjects had the sense not to comment.

Japan: Any medicine containing Methamphetamine or Amphetamine is defined as one of “Prohibited Stimulants” and strictly restricted in Japan. Nobody can bring any medicine containing Methamphetamine or Amphetamine (Adderall and so on) into Japan

It is not only adderall I am worried about, though that is important too. Long acting antipsychotics such as Haldol and Fluphenazine are also on back order. Thiothexene is also on back order as well as others. It seems that many of the generic meds (the cheaper meds) are on the “so called back order”. On the other hand all the brands (which are expensive) are freely available. I have not heard any brand name being backorderd yet.(In fact if Doctors switch patients to these expensive meds then they get several free lunches from drug reps). Most of the patients due to poor economy can not afford to switch to these expensive brands. Pts who were stable on these longacting antipsychotic meds for long time are worsening due to lack of meds and being admitted to hospitals.

DEA need to investigate if this “current so called back orders of multiple drughs” is a matter of greed and intent to switch patients to expensive brands? and who is behind this?

This is always the end result whenever the Police get involved in making medical decisions concerning drugs. The DEA could care less if their restrictions cause patients problems or not as long as they meet their ‘Quotas’. Adderall is just one of many drugs that are affected every year because of the DEA wanting to play doctor instead of simply staying out of making medical decisions for patients and it is ALWAYS the patient that suffers. The DEA does more harm than good in its draconian efforts to control drug usage in America and they really need to back off before they wind up seriously hurting or killing someone because THEY think they know more about what is best for the patient than the Doctors do.

Well of course demand is rising because people take aderal as a recreational drug… this is just the cooperate pushers trying to make more demand for substance abuse… idiots.

Far too many people are being medicated when their symptoms are manageable without such treatments. Medications should not be a first choice. Too many doctors whip out a “script”, at first sign of a problem, rather than to work with their patient’s psychological, diet and lifestyle factors first. It’s the same way I feel about stitching up a cut that only needs a band-aid.

So basicaly the DEA is helping a handful of phamaceutical companies price gouge and regulating a drug that should not even be in their mandate, The DEA is expanding beyond reason and usefulness. American taxpayers should not fund The DEA even Lobbys to keep and make drugs illegal. They (DEA) make tremendous amounts of money off the Government. The was on drugs is more dangerous and costly than the drugs themselves!

This is obviously a case where the
government needs to set quotas for
each type and brand of drugs to make
sure there is an adequate supply of the
generics that people need and can afford!

But I bet the wimps in the government are
too scared of greedy big Pharma to do what
is right.

No one should be forced to pay $200/ month
when $20/month will do the job.

(And yes, there is too much over medication
but that does not make the evil
behavior of the drug companies right.)

I didn’t choose to have a ADHD child but when you have 2 ADHD parents you have a ADHD child. When he wasn’t on the med I had Cps in my face left and right cause he would go and go and go and he wouldnt even know he hurt himself and thats why i had cps. Then lets talk about the schools who wont even try to deal w/ a ADHD if they dont conform to the others they r consider an outcase and a problematic child the schools then force you to put them on meds cause the school cant handle it. so people get over the stupid comments about our drugged up world poeple do it to them themselves i know i am controdicting myself but b4 the drug my son couldnt function but now he is on it he pulls A’s and B’s in school yeah we deal w/the side effect of wieght issues but there r some many others that could be worse.

I have experienced difficulty filling my Adderal prescriptions the entire year of 2011. At times I have to go from pharmacy to pharmacy. I need this due to cognitive difficulty due to Multiple Sclerosis lesions on the brain’s central nervous system. I notice when I am not taking a full dose, it’s an ALL SYSTEMS FAILURE on everything I do. From slicing a finger from not concentrating to wrong signals to my limbs causing an unwanted movement. Forgetfullness and slow sentences are common. I wish I could get off this and not be dependant.

You know, any of you making comments about how unnecessary this medication is obviously doesn’t understand what it is like to have ADD or ADHD… you are persecuting people that have a disorder, I hope you’re better parents than you are people.