TEMPE — For months now, some people who need ADHD medication are struggling to find Adderall.
It’s a medication Tempe resident Jess Aumick needs to function. She was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago and has been using Adderall up until October. That was the last time she was able to get that prescription until this last week.
Over the last few months, she’s been using a different medication to get by.
“I was really excited because I had felt that with Vyvanse, the other medication I was on, I kind of hit a breaking point. It became a lot harder for me to manage working and trying to have some kind of a social life and trying to feed myself,” she said.
When Aumick started running low on Adderall after her last refill in October, she said she started rationing it. She’d use less and not even take Adderall on the weekend, which was a struggle for her.
It is a tactic ABC15 Health Insider and Chief Medical Officer of Redirect Health Dr. Janice Johnston said people could use if they can’t get a refill on their Adderall.
“If you’re going to be off for the week from work or school or over the weekend, that kind of thing, where maybe you feel like you cannot necessarily take the medication, that’s another way to extend, you know, the time that you have your prescription for,” Johnston said.
Johnston also recommends people to be proactive and check with their pharmacies first before getting a refill to make sure that the medication is in stock.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that it has recognized the potential impact of the shortage of medication.
The FDA sent a statement:
“While the agency does not manufacturer drugs and cannot require a pharmaceutical company to make a drug, make more of a drug, or change the distribution of a drug, the public should rest assured the FDA is working closely with numerous manufacturers, agencies, and others in the supply chain to understand, mitigate and prevent or reduce the impact of intermittent or increased demand of certain products. In regard to Adderall, the current shortage was first posted on Oct. 12, 2022 and started with a delay from a manufacturer, which has since resolved, and is now demand-driven. Manufacturers are working to meet the demand and the FDA is helping with anything we can do to increase supply. Supply is increasing and the FDA is continuing to offer assistance.”
The FDA’s website shows that some of the manufacturers do have availability but others are still short, citing they do not have the active ingredients for the drug or there’s been an increase in demand.
The CDC says it has seen a 10% increase in prescriptions for the medication in 2021 compared to the previous year. As time goes on, those needing Adderall hope it will get better soon.
Aumick tells ABC15 she is rationing when she can just in case she can’t get it refilled again and that it is a pricey medication.
