The United States is now experiencing a massive shortage of extensively used Big Pharma drug for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Adderall.
Patients in California, Indiana and Michigan who ordered over the past two months at CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. pharmacies were told the drug was out of stock. (Related: Amphetamine ADHD drug Adderall facing supply crunch, survey finds.)
Most of the time, they were told they will have to wait more than a week so they can buy the drug that is prescribed to be taken every day.
"There are supply chain challenges with this drug," Walgreens spokesperson Rebekah Pajak said. She added the issues are affecting both instant-release and extended-release Adderall. On the other hand, CVS spokesperson Matthew Blanchette said the company's pharmacies are able to fill Adderall prescriptions "in most cases."
The scarcity began with a labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the top seller of Adderall in the United States. This caused a limited supply of both branded and generic instant-release Adderall.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists said Teva supply disruptions are causing shipment delays. However, Bloomberg reported that supply chain disruptions could last into the fall and are "associated with packaging capacity constraints" at one unnamed manufacturing facility and "will affect branded and generic forms of the drug."
"We continue to work with our customers and pharma partners to manage the available supply of Adderall," said AmerisourceBergen spokesperson Lauren Esposito. She did not provide details on Adderall's availability in the Midwest.
Food and Drug Administration spokesperson Cherie Duvall-Jones said manufacturers continue to release products.
The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic made it easy for the federal government for clinicians to prescribe drugs through telehealth consultations. And now that there is a shortage of ADHD "medication," a record-high demand is evident via the increasing ADHD diagnoses.
The pandemic also made possible the growth of online startups that connect patients with prescribers but they came under scrutiny. Bloomberg has previously reported on aggressive prescribing practices at the startups Cerebral Inc. and Done Health. Cerebral has already stopped prescribing many controlled substances.
Psychologists suggest alternative treatment for ADHD
A lot of ADHD patients are now worried that their "symptoms" may exacerbate due to the said pharmaceutical medication scarcity. People in Chicago are reportedly impacted.
"It frightens people," said psychiatrist at Rush University Medical Center Dr. Robert Shulman. "It frightens parents who have kids who are starting school right now. It frightens adults who are reliant on medicine to get them through the work day. Patients can't get their medicines and we get a lot of phone calls, so it's a lot of extra work, and the patients have to call around to pharmacies to look and see where there is a supply."
But Chicago Mind Institute Northbrook psychologists Dr. Jared Treiber and Dr. Elie Saltzman are putting forward alternative treatments for ADHD that don't involve prescription drugs as these kinds of medications can be addicting and the potential for abuse is high.
They treat ADHD patients with a therapy called neurofeedback, which they said naturally retrains the wiring of the brain to maintain focus, through a series of reward-based exercises.
"Neurofeedback is a way that we can train and encourage the brain to operate more optimally and we can avoid using chemicals," Saltzman explained.
Treiber added that this would not involve electrical impulses and zero medications. "We get plenty of people on all different types of stimulants to come through here and by the end of treatment they either lowered their medication to a minimal dose or are completely off their medication."
Visit PrescriptionDrugs.news for more news related to Big Pharma medications that are dangerous to one's health.
Watch this video that talks about Adderall and other medical shortages.
This video is from the Zoon Politikon channel on Brighteon.com.
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