More adults than ever have been seeking ADHD medications – an ADHD expert explains what could be driving the trend

• I started receiving a wave of advertisements beckoning me to get online help for ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
• The reason the term ADHD litters my digital life is because I am a clinical psychologist who exclusively treats patients with ADHD.
• The brand name Adderall and its generic counterparts have become one of the most common medication treatments for ADHD.
• Over the next several months, additional ADHD medications joined Adderall on the list of prescription drugs in short supply.
• The CDC’s findings, along with the stimulant shortage, raise some interesting – and still unanswered – questions about what factors are driving these trends.

The challenge of diagnosing adult ADHD

• Despite the growth in awareness of ADHD over the past couple of decades, many people with ADHD, particularly women and people of color, go undiagnosed in childhood.
• Diagnosing ADHD in either kids or adults first involves establishing that ADHD-like traits, which exist on a continuum and can fluctuate, are severe and chronic enough to prevent a person from living a normal, healthy life.
• Diagnostic challenges can also arise for psychiatrists and other health care practitioners because ADHD shares features with many other conditions.

Stress of the COVID-19 pandemic

• In 2021, the U.S. was still deep in the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Many families were losing loved ones, and there was a huge sense of uncertainty over when normal life would return.
• The demands of the pandemic took a toll on everyone, but research shows that women may have been disproportionately affected.
• In addition, without access to in-person recreational spaces, the pandemic increasingly drove many people to spending more time on digital media.

What ADHD care looked like in 2021

• People who were newly seeking help for ADHD found faster appointments with their primary care providers, who may or may not be comfortable diagnosing and treating adult ADHD.
• Around that time, online ADHD care startups began to pop up, reaching prospective consumers with appealing digital ads like the ones I received.
• Although they were controversial in the medical community, these models may also have reduced barriers to ADHD care for many people.

The verdict is still out

• If the trends stabilize, it may mean that patients who have been unable to access care may finally be getting the help they need.
• If ADHD prescribing returns to pre-pandemic levels, we may learn that a perfect storm of COVID-19-related factors caused a momentary blip in people seeking ADHD treatment.