[bikeformind]

“In recent months, patients have reported problems filling nearly every type of ADHD medication. What’s stranger is that no one seems to know why.”

Let me help you. Telemedicine apps are prescribing stimulants like candy and half the country has a sweet tooth.

Everyone involved knows what’s going on, and people are getting rich, but the action is a little too hot. Pharma’s nervous about impending regulation so they’re chilling operations to avoid getting targeted in the crosshairs of the impending scandal.

[IAmGraydon]

Surely you have actual data that shows the prescribing trends you mentioned, right?

[trynewideas]

https://archive.ph/R9ZBN

> But last week, after reports that the company pressured its clinicians to prescribe medications for A.D.H.D., Cerebral received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, which is investigating possible violations of the Controlled Substances Act, according to a representative for the company. Cerebral has more than 200,000 patients.

> The investigation, which the representative said Cerebral intends to fully cooperate with, comes on the heels of accusations from former employees who said the company prescribed Adderall and Ritalin to treat A.D.H.D. without properly screening patients.

...

> Cerebral is only one of the dozens of mental health start-ups that took off in recent years. At the start of the pandemic, regulators relaxed rules around medical prescription of controlled substances, allowing clinicians to prescribe stimulants and other medications online without the need for an initial in-person evaluation, said Danielle Stutzman, a psychiatric pharmacist and spokeswoman for the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists, a professional organization of pharmacists.

> Those changes made it easier for people with A.D.H.D. to get access to treatments during lockdowns — but also opened the door for companies to prescribe and market drugs without the protocols that can accompany an in-person visit. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cerebral visits typically took only 30 minutes, during which time some clinicians felt pressure to prescribe stimulants.

Cerebral announced in May that they'd pause prescribing ADHD drugs,[1][2] then deleted the announcement by November.[3]

It's not the sole cause, as is the case most systemic problems - Teva Pharmaceuticals had a labor shortage for months that reduced production - but exacerbated a demand growth that had been fast since 2006, grew faster immediately before the pandemic, and then shifted in growth from children to adults under during the pandemic in line with the pandemic-inspired growth of telemedicine prescriptions.[1]

Teva's shortage is passing, but Alvogen, Rhodes Pharmaceuticals and SpecGX all remain short. Methylphenidates (Ritalin and Concerta) are also temporarily short as Adderall users switched off during the shortage.[4]

1: https://www.drugtopics.com/view/adderall-shortage-continues-...

2: https://web.archive.org/web/20220504153953/https://cerebral....

3: https://web.archive.org/web/20221120002710/https://cerebral....

4: https://archive.ph/3SvUw

[aeternum]

So they reduce the heat by triggering manufacturing delays and creating artificial shortages that generate national news?

One would think there's a better strategy.

[EdwardDiego]

Why target this at the supply side and not the prescribe side?

[bikeformind]

“$26 Billion Agreement with Opioid Distributors/Manufacturer On July 21, 2021, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general announced final agreements with Johnson & Johnson, a manufacturer of prescription opioids, and the three major pharmaceutical distributors — Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.”

[EdwardDiego]

Yes. But my question remains, why not regulate this at the prescription level? When certain pharmacies in West Virginia were dispensing Oxycontin at levels that far exceeded the entire population of their area, that was a pretty damn good signal to have a good look into prescribing practices.

[trompetenaccoun]

This is discussed at length in the article, the headline and subheadline are simply bait.

Adderall is amphetamine. Anyone with or without ADHD (whatever that's even supposed to mean) can improve their concentration with α-methylphenethylamine and similar phenethylamines like methylphenidate ("Ritalin"). Question is if it's a good idea to make large parts of the population addicted to stimulants, especially children. Of course there are critics who have concerns and give pharma companies who're just out for a bit of profit a hard time.

[navjack27]

This is wrong. It's been shown over and over the people without ADHD get the impression that their concentration and ability to stick to things is improved. Only the impression of it. The reality is that they become more scatterbrained. People with ADHD show a reduction in the inability to concentrate the inability to focus their executive function and reduced aggression and anger and frustration. All things for the most part that people without ADHD seem to have increases of.

[trompetenaccoun]

>people without ADHD

How is that defined for a start? How is it measured?

I can have ADHD if I want amphetamine, the people diagnosing it and prescribing the drugs have obvious incentives to do so. That's the reason for the shortage in the first place. Same as with the earlier opioid epidemic. Should we presume that suddenly there was a massive increase in pain patients - or was it rather an increase in prescriptions?