Pharmaceutical Companies Struggle With ADHD Drug Shortages

The amount of children being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) has risen dramatically over the past couple years, thanks to questionable diagnosing techniques and profit-driven guidelines. Under normal circumstances the drug companies would be completely thrilled with the influx of ADHD-labeled children. But while they are definitely still excited from the profits being raked in, they are actually struggling  to acquire enough of the active ingredient used in the drug to ‘treat’ the ‘disease’, Adderall. This is leading to complications for the drug companies since they are unable to provide for the high demand.

Pharmaceutical Companies Struggle With ADHD Drug Shortages

ADHD has become one of the most commonly diagnosed childhood disorders today. An average of 9 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 are diagnosed with the disease per year, and the numbers are clearly not slowing. More than 18 million prescriptions were written for Adderall in 2010, up 13.4 percent from 2009. The amount of Adderall prescribed is not only the result of diagnoses, however. The drug has been touted for its concentration benefits so much that abuse of the medication is rampant. The sad part is these kids are often utilizing ‘legitimate’ reasons for taking the drug, in hopes of increasing test scores in school.

Why the drug industry and even president Barack Obama scramble in fear as to what might happen with this drug shortage is quite the mystery. The president has even issued an executive order demanding that the FDA address the shortages. It appears that an Adderall shortage is much more important than labeling genetically modified foods, which Obama promised to do back 2007.

Drug Shortages Need to Happen, But Not Due to Public Demand

But this shortage of drugs leaving kids with low or even no supply is probably the best thing that could happen to them. There is an incredible amount of children being misdiagnosed and then given mind altering drugs, to the point where even mainstream health experts are now speaking out against mental illness medications. The issue self-perpetuates as the children are prescribed these behavior altering drugs, which alter their brain chemistry and lead to more serious problems like depression and drug dependency later in life. Pharmaceuticals are only a temporary fix that do not address the fundamental issues behind behavioral disorders.

There simply needs to be a dramatic shift in how people are diagnosed today in order fix the wide array of drug issues this society faces. The profit-driven pharmaceutical industry works very well with the psychiatric community in medicating the public with disorders and health complications invented by man. The ‘psychiatric bible’,  known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, possesses the definition of every single existent disorder.  As the book becomes updated the criteria for labeling a person for many disorders becomes much lower. As the decades have gone by, the amount of disorders someone can possibly have has gone up by the hundreds, all thanks to the simple stroke of a pen in this book.

If there is any chance for individuals to rid themselves of drug dependency, this system must change. Of course with the amazing awareness that is taking currently taking place within the alternative media, at least some of us are not falling into the pharmaceutical industry’s trap. But the handle the industry has on the majority of the population through massive advertising must be realized and must be resisted on a mass scale.