For over a decade, University of Mississippi student Elizabeth Horn has taken medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Since moving to Oxford from her home in Newport, R.I., she has struggled to access her prescription.
“Each time I go to the pharmacy, it truly becomes a guessing game if I will actually be able to get the medication that I need,” Horn, a freshman exercise science major, said.
In October 2022, the Food and Drug Administration first announced the shortage of Adderall, a medication used to treat ADHD. Over a year later, experts doubt the supply of ADHD medications like Adderall, Vyvanse and Ritalin will increase anytime soon — shortages are expected to continue through the end of 2024.
Pharmacies in Oxford, both local and chain, are feeling the effects of this scarcity.
“There is an outrageous amount of ADHD prescriptions within Oxford,” Rebecca Whitehorn, who has been a pharmacy technician at G&M Pharmacy for the past seven years, said.
However, Whitehorn explained that G&M’s size has helped in meeting the demand.
“Because we are a smaller pharmacy, our size allows us to access a greater assortment of brands to fill ADHD prescriptions, more so than the larger pharmacies such as Walmart or Walgreens,” Whitehorn said.
According to Whitehorn, G&M’s biggest challenge is giving customers access to their desired medications. Much of the medicine’s availability depends on the supplier, and this has resulted in a greater supply of generic medication substitutions. The prescription is filled with whichever medication comes first, whether generic or name-brand.
The FDA standards allow generic medications to have different colors, binding chemicals and fillers than the name-brand medication. However, the generic variety must have the same active ingredients as the name brand.
Rylie Shook, a senior biochemistry major, has been on ADHD medication for seven years. She started feeling the effects of the shortage in 2023 when she could not get her prescription filled.
“I mainly get my prescriptions from CVS or Walgreens. However, over the last two years it has been extremely difficult to find a pharmacy that is able to fill my prescription,” says Shook. “I have not been able to get my prescription filled for generic Vyvanse in over four months.”
Shook is from New Orleans and has attempted to get her prescription filled at pharmacies in both her hometown and in Oxford. She struggled in both places.
“Not only has it been extremely difficult to perform to my highest potential academically, but numerous hours every day have also been spent contacting my physician and several pharmacies,” Shook said.
The FDA said earlier this year it blamed “increased prescribing potentially related to the growth in telemedicine, supply chain issues, manufacturing and quality issues, and business decisions of manufacturers” for contributing to the ongoing shortages.
To address the shortage, the Drug Enforcement Administration is targeting telehealth with tentative plans to require routine in-person appointments to receive Adderall prescriptions.
“The DEA will allow patients who already have prescriptions via telehealth to continue doing so for an additional year,” according to reporting from NBC. “After Nov. 11, 2024, all patients will need in-person visits to continue their ADHD prescriptions, though the DEA says this plan could change.”
