Adderall—a prescription stimulant used by millions with ADHD—is hard to come by these days, making life exceedingly difficult for those who use it to treat the attention disorder.

The current Adderall shortage was first reported on Sept. 19 and affects immediate-release Adderall and a generic version, as well as a sustained-release generic made by multiple manufacturers, according to a widely used industry database kept by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

There are major supply-side issues contributing to the shortage, and six out of nine major manufacturers of the drug have reported difficulty keeping up with demand. Teva Pharmaceutical, the largest seller of Adderall in the U.S., has blamed “packing capacity constraints” and labor shortages, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

But a sharp uptick in demand for the drug during the pandemic is also contributing to the current shortage, experts say.

Adderall has become so scarce in some regions that doctors have begun turning to alternative treatments for their patients, said Dr. Joseph Saseen, associate dean for clinical affairs and professor at the University of Colorado’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy. He also works at a family care clinic in Denver.

But such transitions aren’t always easy for patients, who must contact their prescriber for a different medication and go through an adjustment process, which may include side effects they’re not used to, Saseen says.

And some people are simply going without treatment.

“The biggest risk is the underlying disease becoming uncontrolled, which could result in a lack of concentration and difficulty performing normal activities,” he said. A sharp increase in demand

Roughly 16 million Americans used prescription stimulants including Adderall in 2017, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health . That number rose even higher after the advent of the COVID pandemic.Although prescriptions for people under the age of 21 remained fairly stable, the number of patients aged 22-44 with Adderall prescriptions jumped 7.4% between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020. It jumped another 15.1% the next year. Patients ages 45 and older only saw a small uptick in such prescriptions during the pandemic, according to Trilliant Health , […]

Yes, there’s an Adderall shortage. Experts say high demand and the pandemic are fueling it