Shortage of ADHD Meds is Getting Parents Hyper, Too

Talk to a parent whose child with ADHD has been helped by stimulant medications like Ritalin and Adderall, and you're likely to hear how their son or daughter is "a different kid" on the drug. But many parents who have been "given back their child" by ADD medications are preparing themselves to get reacquainted with the old kid.

According to a report by MSNBC, pharmacies across the country have been turning away parents who have come to fill their prescriptions for Ritalin and Adderall and their generic equivalents. The scarcities have prompted the Food and Drug Administration to add both methylphenidate (Ritalin) and Amphetamine Salts (Adderall) to their list of national shortages. A shortage will hit stimulant medication users and their parents especially hard because they are unable to fill more than a 30-days' supply at one time because of the medications' classifcation as controlled substances. In addition to often tripling prescription copays and adding inconvenience, this law also means that parents never have more than a one-month stock of the medication.

The effects of withholding medication from children with ADHD are noticeable immediately. Both Ritalin and Adderal go through a person's system rather quickly and their therapeutic action finishes by the next day, if not within hours. From there it could take just one day until the child enters into a negative feedback loop. Children who need the meds but don't have them will change in way that will affect not only them, but their social and family interactions, their school performance, the choices they make, and the overall stress level of their homes. As the relationships between the child and these environmental contexts are reciprocal, changes in the child will also lead to changes in the individuals or settings, themselves. For example, a father who is tired and frustrated from having to manage his child's difficult behavior will become less patient with that child and his other children, peers might come to reject the child, and the child might face disciplinary consequences. All of these are likely to just drive the formerly-sweet (on meds) child further toward becoming unmanageable and frustrated with himself.

As a clinician and parent, I'm glad that the MSNBC article noted how much of a toll this shortage could take on parents, whol will have to deal with thier chldren unmedicated. But the author leaves out the potntial effect theachers. At a school fundraising dinner that I recently attended, one of the speakers untroduced the teachers by saying to the parents, "They (the teachers) do something everyday that most of us could not pull off: spending 6-8 hours a day with our kdis, 5 days a week!" So it is to the teachers that my heart goes when I read of this shortage. Having one or two children in a home unmedicated does not comare to 5 or 6 of them in a classroom, plus 15 other kids, plus a lesson plan.

That is, unless the parent runs out over Pesach. If that happens, we'll all need help!
Read the MSNBC article here