When you look at who prescribes stimulant medication, it’s really the same across the country. BU Today: What has spared BMC the shortage?Īugustyn: I think it just has to do with where the medication’s shipped from. We have, throughout the pandemic, seen different shortages, Concerta. We’re not seeing the shortage that they’re talking about in other parts of the country. I don’t think that had anything to do with the prevalence of ADHD changing. Some kids just could not focus on a screen-besides the added stress of social distancing and being separated from their classmates, which was huge. What became tricky in the pandemic, during virtual learning, is: one, parents were watching their child try to learn and were noticing things that teachers may have been talking about, and two, virtual learning was very different than in-the-classroom. I tell parents, if your school has 100 kids, probably 10 of them have ADHD. I would say that’s true at Boston Medical Center-maybe more like 7 percent. Somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of youth in America have ADHD. Q &A With Marilyn Augustyn BU Today: What percentage of your patients take Adderall, and how hard has it been for them to obtain it?Īugustyn: I deal with a lot of youth and young adults with ADHD. They help you focus better, but you can still see, unless you’re significantly visually impaired, without your glasses.”īU Today spoke with Augustyn about ADHD during the pandemic and other available medications that patients can access during the Adderall shortage.
But what I reinforce for them is that these medications are like wearing glasses. I definitely have patients who feel like they do their job better, they study better, when they’re on the medication. And while a recent New York Times article describes “withdrawal” symptoms among patients elsewhere who couldn’t get Adderall, Augustyn that “it’s not truly in a physical sense as much as it is psychological.
The same holds true at Boston Medical Center, the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine’s teaching hospital and Boston’s safety net hospital, says Marilyn Augustyn, a professor of pediatrics at the school and BMC director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics. “Fortunately, thus far we have been able to identify other local pharmacies that have Adderall in stock, and so our students have continued to be able to access it.” “As is happening nationwide, some Boston-area pharmacies are experiencing periods where they are out of stock of some Adderall preparations,” says Sharon Jacobs, Student Health Services associate director of psychiatry. The drug’s shortage, expected to last at least through 2022, comes as stimulants like Adderall constitute the frontline therapy for ADHD, with overall use up since 2006, especially among adult women.īU, which offers resources to students with ADHD, has lucked out so far. But now a go-to drug used to treat the disorder-Adderall-is in short supply across much of the country, the latest casualty of snarled supply chains.ĬOVID-19’s stresses may have led more people to seek the drug at the same time that Teva Pharmaceuticals, a vital Adderall producer, underwent production delays because of worker shortages. Today, that figure stands at almost 12 percent. Just 2 percent of college students were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 20 years ago.
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