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elleng

(130,156 posts)
Sat Dec 31, 2011, 10:07 PM Dec 2011

F.D.A. Is Finding Attention Drugs in Short Supply.

Medicines to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are in such short supply that hundreds of patients complain daily to the Food and Drug Administration that they are unable to find a pharmacy with enough pills to fill their prescriptions.

The shortages are a result of a troubled partnership between drug manufacturers and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with companies trying to maximize their profits and drug enforcement agents trying to minimize abuse by people, many of them college students, who use the medications to get high or to stay up all night.

Caught in between are millions of children and adults who rely on the pills to help them stay focused and calm. Shortages, particularly of cheaper generics, have become so endemic that some patients say they worry almost constantly about availability. . .

Agent Boggs of the Drug Enforcement Administration said his agency was concerned that A.D.H.D. drug abuse was on the rise. “We see people abuse it in college and then continue to abuse it nonmedically once they leave,” he said.

Since the drugs have been shown to improve concentration, and not just in people with A.D.H.D., they have become popular among students who are seeking a study aid. And since they can impart a euphoria that users have likened to a cocaine high, the pills are sometimes ground up by people who snort them for a thrill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/health/policy/fda-is-finding-attention-drugs-in-short-supply.html?hpw

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F.D.A. Is Finding Attention Drugs in Short Supply. (Original Post) elleng Dec 2011 OP
Too long, didn't read jberryhill Dec 2011 #1
Read what? Jackpine Radical Dec 2011 #2
Oh, I got it! elleng Dec 2011 #3
DUzy!!! Odin2005 Jan 2012 #6
Do you always crack jokes about brain disorders? midnight armadillo Jan 2012 #8
Give your child Politicalboi Dec 2011 #4
Except arrest, a fairly serious 'side effect.' elleng Dec 2011 #5
The Ritalin shortage has affected me meow2u3 Jan 2012 #7
My 80 year-old mom is having the same problem. She has taken Ritalin for over 40 years RamblingRose Jan 2012 #9
Current Shortage in Danbury CT Area LightShifter Jan 2012 #10

meow2u3

(24,745 posts)
7. The Ritalin shortage has affected me
Sun Jan 1, 2012, 11:13 AM
Jan 2012

I can't find a pharmacy that has the medicine to fill my prescription. I have been told by every pharmacy in my area that the meds are on back order, sometimes until February! What the hell do I do for freakin' January?!

Those damn junkies ruined it for those of us who really need ADHD meds.

RamblingRose

(1,030 posts)
9. My 80 year-old mom is having the same problem. She has taken Ritalin for over 40 years
Mon Jan 2, 2012, 02:59 PM
Jan 2012

to treat her narcolepsy. Very bad news.

LightShifter

(1 post)
10. Current Shortage in Danbury CT Area
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 12:21 AM
Jan 2012

Another case of corporations controlling (price fixing) American drug prices by producing only brand-name drugs instead of cheaper generic drugs. This is class warfare - again! Rich people can afford to by the brand name drugs but middle-class and poor people can't. When the hell is the government going to start being on We The People's side!!! Prosecute those who ABUSE drugs instead of PERSECUTING those who need them! I'm so sick of government agencies being in the corporations pockets it. Now they even want to try to stop us from going out of country to purchase them via schemes like the "Stop Online Piracy Act" bill which politicians are trying to disguise and "spin" as a way to "protect us from out of country online drug store schemes" - BULLS#*@!!! I've never been robbed by an out of country online drug store purchase. Rather, I save over $800 on my 90 day supply of pills - I pay only $80! Time to move to Canada.

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