Some people have reported that their medication no longer relieves their symptoms since the onset of the statewide shortage. However, there can be other variables involved.
Lately, videos on TikTok have been extremely popular with people claiming that their medication is no longer working. In one, a woman swings her fist while holding a prescription bottle and rattling the tablets. The caption says, "They're giving us 'fake' Adderall during the shortage." A another individual asserts in a video that "Adderall isn't adderalling."
Some people exhort their audience to file complaints with the Food and Drug Administration on what they perceive to be the distribution of a "new" Adderall and to request that the agency do laboratory testing on the drug. On TikTok, videos pertaining to the phrase "adhd meds not working" have received over 15 million views.
Due to a national shortage, many patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have had difficulty accessing their medicine for almost six months. There is still a scarcity of Adderall, as the FDA first reported in October. Health care professionals are left answering the queries of the patients who do find Adderall, even though some claim the worries are not brand-new. Psychiatric chemist Danielle Stutzman of Children's Hospital Colorado says that throughout the previous several years, up to 25% of her patients have reported that their medication seems less effective. She believes that this trend started around the time the coronavirus pandemic started.
According to a statement from an F.D.A. spokesman, "the agency has not identified any safety or quality issues with Adderall products, or signals indicating a loss or change in efficacy." "All Teva manufacturing processes and practices are the same (and we continue to distribute the same brand and generic Adderall products)," a spokesman from Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the biggest Adderall makers, stated in a statement.
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While there isn't a single, definitive reason why some people think their prescription is "different," chemists and A.D.H.D. specialists suggested that a number of things might be involved.
Drug Shortages in the U.S.
A Federal Agencies' Investigation The Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission announced that they would look into the reasons for generic medication shortages as well as the actions of "powerful middlemen" in the supply chain.
Chemotherapies: The greatest concerns of patients and the larger healthcare system have been realised as a result of the disruption in the supply of essential chemotherapy medications, as some patients with aggressive cancers have not been able to receive the necessary treatment.
Tolerance buildup
A Challenging Scarcity Patients and their physicians are now faced with harsh realities as thousands of Americans have experienced delays in receiving medication treatments for life-threatening illnesses.
Increased tolerance
According to Dr. Stutzman, some kids and teens who use Adderall may gradually develop a tolerance to the drug as they become older and need greater dosages. Although it is less frequent, individuals who were diagnosed as children and those who are new to the medicine can both develop tolerance, according to her.They could find it more difficult to focus at work or school, feel more impulsive and hyperactive, and develop fidgetiness.
However, according to Dr. Frances Levin, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and an authority on A.D.H.D., the majority of people do not build up a tolerance to prescribed stimulant drugs, and many continue to take Adderall for years at a constant level. "It's not like someone takes 20 Adderall and you have to give them 50 or 100 the next year," the woman remarked. "That simply doesn't occur very often."
Switching medications
Dr. Stutzman stated that even if a patient is administered the generic form of Adderall, they should still receive the same level of relief because the brand name and generic versions of the prescription are pharmacological counterparts. The chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families, Dr. Anish Dube, stated that a small percentage of individuals might be susceptible to minute differences in a drug's manufacturing process. According to him, even the coating on the tablet may affect how well your body absorbs the medication.
This implies that, in theory, getting a generic version of Adderall from a different producer can affect how the drug makes you feel. But because generics are so similar to one another, the vast majority of patients wouldn't notice a difference from their original prescription. Dr. Dube stated, "It's not supposed to have drastic differences."
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Prescribers might advise a patient to begin taking Vyvanse in the interim if Adderall isn't available; however, keep in mind that different people may react differently to new medications.
"We've noticed that the number of stimulants on the market has increased dramatically in recent years, and they're not all the same," clinical pharmacy specialist Sandy Mitchell of Virginia Commonwealth University Health said.
According to Ms. Mitchell, as the shortage persists, it is becoming more typical for doctors to prescribe patients different prescriptions depending on what is available, such as an extended-release type of Adderall for a patient who previously took a shorter-acting tablet. A patient's mood may fluctuate throughout the day as a result of those changes.
Disruptions and other factors
Dr. Levin stated, "A.D.H.D. cannot be diagnosed in a vacuum." Individuals with A.D.H.D. may be especially sensitive to life-threatening events; symptoms may resurface or worsen when a person experiences stress related to changes in routine, such as moving or starting a new job. This explains why a lot of A.D.H.D. patients have had difficulty during the epidemic, according to Dr. Stutzman. With more people going back to work or spending more time in public places where masking regulations are less stringent, daily routines may shift and symptoms may exacerbate.
Starting and stopping medication
Some people have been forced to go without Adderall for weeks or even months due to the scarcity. According to Dr. Dube, a patient's likelihood of experiencing withdrawal symptoms after stopping Adderall generally increases with the medication's dosage and length of use. When they start taking the medication again, patients could find it difficult to get back into the routine. According to him, those who resume taking the medication in big amounts without gradually increasing from smaller doses may experience jitteriness and restlessness; some people may even get heart palpitations.
