Seven in ten adults with ADHD could not fill their prescription

ADHD is a common childhood disorder that can continue into adulthood, and
there is limited information about diagnosis and treatment in adults. This
survey is some of it.

The scale

Half diagnosed as adults is the figure that reframes the condition. ADHD is
described as a childhood disorder that can persist; for half of these people
it was never identified in childhood at all.

The shortage

**71.5% had difficulty filling their prescription because the medication was
unavailable.**

Seven in ten. Not cost, not insurance, not a prescribing dispute — **the
medicine was not there.**

Stimulants are controlled substances with production quotas, and the shortages
of recent years have meant patients going from pharmacy to pharmacy, rationing
doses, or going without. For a medication taken daily to function at work,
that is not an inconvenience.

Why the CDC is measuring this

**Information on diagnosis and treatment helps the development of clinical
care guidelines and regulatory decision-making around medication shortages
and telehealth for ADHD.**

Both of those policy questions were live when this survey ran. Telehealth
prescribing of controlled substances was expanded during the pandemic and its
future was under review — and **half of these adults had used telehealth for
ADHD services.** A regulatory decision on that reaches millions of people, and
until surveys like this there was almost no data on how many.

*Source: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnosis, Treatment, and
Telehealth Use in Adults — National Center for Health Statistics Rapid Surveys
System, United States, October–November 2023. MMWR, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.*