It's a rough start to the school year for the more than five-million American children diagnosed with ADHD, 1200 WOAI reports.
A nationwide drug shortage has been dragging on since last October.
"It started off with just one drug company that wasn't able to make as much Adderall, and it's just snowballed," Josefa Benedetti, Executive Director of Pharmacy at University Health, says.
It's not just here. This is a nationwide problem, affecting both adults and kids who are struggling to concentrate as they begin the school year. Benedetti says it's an issue of supply and demand.
"There has been an increase, in the past ten years, of about 46-percent when it comes to the dispensing of ADHD medication."
On top of that, both the DEA and FDA say that drug makers fell 30% short of meeting the full quota for amphetamine medications in 2022, leaving about 1 billion potential drug doses on the table. They added that there’s a “similar trend” occurring this year.
"We are working closely with numerous manufacturers, agencies, and others in the supply chain to understand, prevent, and reduce the impact of these shortages," they say in a newly-released letter.
Benedetti says that families struggling to find medications need to ask their pharmacist for help.
"For example, if they're taking a brand name, they can consider a generic formulation."
There are also different types of medications that might be more available. Finding solutions, she says, is part of a pharmacist's job.
The FDA has already approved several generic versions of Vyvanse for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in people six years and older.