BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Nationwide there is not enough Adderall to fill the prescription bottles of everyone who needs it according to patients, doctors, and the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Adderall is an amphetamine-based prescription drug mainly used to treat Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) although it is sometimes prescribed to patients with narcolepsy. The drug is also heavily regulated in the United States due to its potential for abuse.
- There is an Adderall shortage across the United States
- Adderall is a common drug prescribed for ADHD, with lots of potential for abuse
- According to Lehigh Valley experts, the reasons for the shortage include supply chain problems, an uptick in prescriptions, and Adderall misuse/abuse
There is no simple reason for the shortage. Instead, a number of circumstances come into play, according to Chad Meyerhoefer, a professor of economics at Lehigh University.
“There are several factors that have culminated to produce the shortage,” Mayerhoefer said. “One would be, that there has been an increase in diagnoses of ADHD among children and adults, and that increase occurred gradually over time, then spiked somewhat during the pandemic.”
Mayeherhoefer said this in itself hasn’t produced the shortage, but when a heightened number of people got diagnosed and prescribed all around the same time, this put stress on the supply chain.
“The other factor has been supply chain problems,” Mayerhoefer said. “And workforce problems for some of the major manufacturers.”
He said one major company that makes generic Adderall pills, Teva Pharmaceuticals, was hit especially hard.
How common are Adderall use and abuse?
Mayerhoefer added that drug shortages themselves are common in the United States – but this one is causing more problems because so many people use Adderall.
As of the most recent available statistic (from 2018): 16 million Americans use the category of stimulant drugs that includes Adderall.
According to one health care research firm, Trilliant Health,the number of (prescribed) Adderall users between 22 and 24 has skyrocketed since 2018 and through the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2019-20, prescriptions went up by 7.4%. Then, in 2021, another 15.1%. (Stats for other age groups either stayed the same or declined).
As of 2018, 5 million American adults were abusing or misusing Adderall according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
That number has likely gone up, said George DuPaul, a psychology professor at Lehigh University and expert on ADHD in children and teenagers. He said he’s aware of an uptick in Adderall abuse among students at Lehigh University itself. But that abuse usually falls into two categories of motive: party and study.
“I think what you’re seeing, at least at Lehigh University, is an increase in stimulant misuse and diversion,” DuPaul said. “What I’m referring to is non-medical use of stimulants – in this case, college students, either buying medication, you know, around final exam time or other exam times to use as a study drug, or a drug to prolong partying – you know, so you take a stimulant, you can keep drinking, anecdotally, you can drink longer.”
DuPaul said in the fall of 2020, 2% of Lehigh students reported misusing stimulant drugs such as Adderall. In the fall of 2021, that number more than doubled, rising to 4.8%.
He added that men were significantly more likely to misuse the drug than women. In the same metric as above, men’s stimulant misuse went from 1.6 percent to 6.7 percent in the same year.
DuPaul said whenever these under-the-table demands for Adderall increase, that removes at least some doses out of the ecosystem and legitimate supply chain, and causes the people who actually had those prescriptions to seek them elsewhere, creating what he called a domino effect.
He said this could mean buying from other students, or convincing a doctor to provide more – no easy feat, as Adderall is heavily regulated as a controlled substance.
According to the FDA, the Adderall shortage could last into 2023.
