Health & Medicine
Prescriptions for ADHD Drugs Doubled for Adults in Last Four Years
Thomas Carannante
First Posted: Mar 12, 2014 11:55 AM EDT
Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly a childhood disorder, it can continue into adolescence and adulthood, affecting one's ability to stay focused, pay attention, and control behavior as well as hyperactivity.
Express Scripts, a company that provides and manages prescription benefits for 90 million Americans, released new data today that revealed ADHD prescriptions for adults have increased 53% over the past four years. There was also a 47% increase for prescriptions among children.
This report suggests that ADHD is perhaps being overdiagnosed and drugs such as Adderall, Concerta, and Strattera are being overprescribed. But the increase in diagnoses have been occurring for a while now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Between 1997 and 2006, ADHD diagnoses increased at least 3% per year, and at least 5% per year between 2003 and 2011.
The issue has affected healthcare and medical costs since these diagnoses, treatments, and prescriptions for ADHD contributed between $36 billion $52 billion in costs in 2005. Since then, these costs have increased as diagnoses have become more frequent; 9% of children under the age of 18 and 4.1% of adults are affected by ADHD.
The problem could lie within the criteria for diagnosing the disorder. Although the criteria are clear, ADHD shares traits with other mental disorders and conditions, which could contribute to misdiagnoses and inflated numbers. Behavioral therapy is common among children who are thought to have the disease because many doctors don't feel it's necessary to immediately put them on medication. The opposite is the case for adults, where health experts believe drugs should be prescribed to manage symptoms, but it's also important that they undergo some sort of therapy.
Sue Visser of the National Centers on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities explains more about ADHD diagnoses in this ABC News article. You can also read more on the Express Scripts data in this Fox News article.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Mar 12, 2014 11:55 AM EDT
Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly a childhood disorder, it can continue into adolescence and adulthood, affecting one's ability to stay focused, pay attention, and control behavior as well as hyperactivity.
Express Scripts, a company that provides and manages prescription benefits for 90 million Americans, released new data today that revealed ADHD prescriptions for adults have increased 53% over the past four years. There was also a 47% increase for prescriptions among children.
This report suggests that ADHD is perhaps being overdiagnosed and drugs such as Adderall, Concerta, and Strattera are being overprescribed. But the increase in diagnoses have been occurring for a while now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Between 1997 and 2006, ADHD diagnoses increased at least 3% per year, and at least 5% per year between 2003 and 2011.
The issue has affected healthcare and medical costs since these diagnoses, treatments, and prescriptions for ADHD contributed between $36 billion $52 billion in costs in 2005. Since then, these costs have increased as diagnoses have become more frequent; 9% of children under the age of 18 and 4.1% of adults are affected by ADHD.
The problem could lie within the criteria for diagnosing the disorder. Although the criteria are clear, ADHD shares traits with other mental disorders and conditions, which could contribute to misdiagnoses and inflated numbers. Behavioral therapy is common among children who are thought to have the disease because many doctors don't feel it's necessary to immediately put them on medication. The opposite is the case for adults, where health experts believe drugs should be prescribed to manage symptoms, but it's also important that they undergo some sort of therapy.
Sue Visser of the National Centers on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities explains more about ADHD diagnoses in this ABC News article. You can also read more on the Express Scripts data in this Fox News article.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone