A global shortage of medications relied on by people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD has been hitting diagnosed persons hard. Doctors say they're having to get creative with their prescribing while pharmacists are in a battle royale to secure supply.
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00:00Harriet Torrens had just turned 42 when she was diagnosed with ADHD. As her psychiatrist
00:10said the words, she burst into tears.
00:12You don't expect that in the moment but I think it's been a lifetime of not quite understanding
00:17yourself and I kind of knew when I went in, by the time I went in, that I was probably
00:20going to get a diagnosis. But to have someone actually confirm that was quite a powerful
00:24thing.
00:25Harriet was prescribed medication which eased her symptoms almost immediately.
00:31It's been a very useful tool for me, it just keeps me a little bit even, gets me through
00:34the day a bit more consistently.
00:37For more than two years it worked beautifully. Then in February a boost to her dose was recommended
00:43but it wasn't available. That's when Harriet's GP swung into action.
00:49She contacted me via email and she was clearly very distressed. And her experience of being
00:56unmedicated was, not only was her executive function impaired, but she was starting to
01:04feel like her mental health more generally was affected.
01:08It's a situation many of Dr Chapman's patients are facing. In most cases her only option is
01:15to cobble together a new mix of drugs.
01:18And so then it can get really complicated because you're trying to rotate a patient from a drug
01:25to another version of a drug if it is in stock and available, knowing that we actually don't
01:31know whether or not this is going to be as beneficial for that patient.
01:35The drug shortage is having a devastating impact on children with ADHD. Paediatrician Kim Bland
01:43feels heartbroken watching it play out.
01:46There are families that are not giving it in school holidays and on weekends when they
01:49normally would. And mums and dads are taking the brunt of that challenge with executive function,
01:55memory, focus, concentration and emotional regulation because they want to prioritise their child
02:01being able to regulate while they're at school.
02:04Those families are arguably the lucky ones. Some have run out completely.
02:09At the moment there are two different drugs that are short and some of my families have
02:14just worked their way through the first shortage, transitioned to a new medication, only to be
02:19told that that's now going into shortage. So they really have nowhere else to go.
02:24It's revealed an ugly side of pharmacy as pharmacists stockpile whatever they can get their hands
02:30on, meaning others miss out. It's often described as a Hunger Games effect but we are in a global
02:36economy. We don't manufacture many medications on shore and so when we hear that something is going
02:43to go in short supply, human nature is let's obtain as much as we can to look after our local community.
02:50Australia has been in the grips of an ADHD medication shortage since late last year, with manufacturing
02:57issues, supply chain challenges and an increase in demand globally to blame. As for how long it will last,
03:04the Therapeutic Goods Administration is expecting it to persist until at least December.
03:10Harriet's new prescription is working and in stock for now. But it's not lost on her how different
03:18the experience could have been had her GP not been allowed to switch her medication.
03:24If you're waiting seven months to get into a psychiatrist, what do you do if you're waiting
03:27seven months to get an answer? A question many are likely to be asking.