Real Stories of the Adderall Shortage: People With ADHD Scramble to Get Their Meds

The months-long Adderall shortage is forcing people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — and parents of kids with ADHD — to find creative ways to get their hands on medicines they need.

That’s because at this point, supplies aren’t just limited for Adderall, which has been on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) drug shortage list since October 2022. As doctors switch people who can’t get Adderall to other ADHD drugs like Vyvanse in the meantime, those medicines are now also getting harder and harder to find.

As a result, reliable monthly refills and same-day availability of new prescriptions have become pretty uncommon for ADHD medications, patients and parents say. And everyone who needs ADHD medicines — and their pharmacists and physicians — are spending a lot more time each month trying to get prescriptions sent to drugstores for medicines that are actually in stock before those supplies run out, doctors and patients say.

“This has been one of the most impactful medication shortages that we’ve seen,” says Lauren Hoffman, PharmD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and clinical pharmacy specialist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio.

“While we are no strangers to medication shortages in the pharmacy world, this one has been particularly difficult due to the fact that amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall) has a limited number of alternatives and additionally is a controlled substance which comes with a host of added requirements and restrictions,” Dr. Hoffman adds.

Adderall (a schedule 2N controlled substance, meaning it’s deemed as having a high potential for abuse leading to severe psychological or physical dependence) cannot be refilled. A doctor must write a new prescription for it every time due to rules from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), according to StatPearls. Patients can only get a 30-day supply of Adderall at a time, per the DEA.

‘I Had to Learn How to Hack the System’

Lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) is what Felicia Martinez, a nonprofit administrator and mother of two in Brooklyn, New York, uses as a backup plan recommended by her doctor when she can’t get Adderall for herself or for her teenage daughter who also has ADHD. They were both diagnosed during the pandemic; Martinez recognized ADHD symptoms in herself after getting treatment for her daughter.

Martinez hasn’t been able to reliably fill her or her daughter’s Adderall prescriptions since January 2023, when she first encountered the shortage when her prescription was unavailable at her usual pharmacy and she had to call around to other drugstores to see if they had it in stock.

“That was futile because everybody was out,” Martinez recalls. “So, I had to learn how to hack the system.”

She’s learned what days shipments of ADHD medicines arrive at all the local pharmacies in her area, and what day and time to call to confirm if they have Adderall, or her backup drug, Vyvanse. And she’s learned how to reach her doctors’ office to quickly get prescriptions sent through before the limited ADHD drugs in stock run out.

But she says there are still times when she has to skip her Adderall so her daughter can have it for school — and times when they both go without.

Switching to Other ADHD Drugs Can Help — but It Has Drawbacks

Switching from one drug to another may work if they have the same active ingredient, says Marilyn Augustyn, MD, a professor and director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine in Massachusetts.

Adderall contains the active ingredients amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, as does another ADHD medication called Mydayis.

Several other commonly prescribed medicines for ADHD — including Ritalin, Concerta, and Daytrana — contain the active ingredient methylphenidate. Focalin is a stimulant that contains a different active ingredient, dexmethylphenidate HCL. The active ingredient in Vyvanse, another option for ADHD, is lisdexamfetamine.

However, these switches aren’t always ideal. For instance, many patients with ADHD who require extended-release versions of these drugs don’t get the same results if they switch to fast-acting versions of these medicines that are effective for fewer hours, Dr. Augustyn says. On the flipside, some kids can’t take long-acting ADHD medicines because it makes it hard for them to sleep, she adds.

As more and more people who can’t access Adderall switch medications, this has also led to shortages of other ADHD medications, such as Vyvanse. Currently, there are shortages of the 40-milligram (mg), 60-mg, and 70-mg formulations of Vyvanse, according to a statement from Takeda, the manufacturer of Vyvanse.

‘I’m Made to Feel Like a Criminal’

Jill, a stay-at-home mother of three in Rochester, New Hampshire, has two children who need ADHD medications — a daughter in high school who takes methylphenidate (Concerta) and an 11-year-old son who has both ADHD and autism and takes dexmethylphenidate (Focalin). She asked that only her first name be used to protect her children’s privacy.

Many months, Jill has her children’s pediatrician send in a prescription, only to find it’s out of stock when she gets to the drugstore, she says. Then, she tries to call other pharmacies, only to be told they’re not allowed to disclose whether drugs are in stock because stimulants are controlled substances. Or she finds a pharmacy with the drug she needs in stock, only to find it’s gone by the time she can reach the pediatrician and have the prescription transmitted.

The fix for her kids has involved getting prescriptions for multiple drugs from their pediatrician, and hoping that at least one will be available at any given time. Her son now gets prescriptions for both Focalin and transdermal methylphenidate (Daytrana), while her daughter gets prescriptions for both Concerta and generic methylphenidate.

But, each time she tries to get more medicine for one of her kids, Jill worries about triggering so-called DEA “red flag” laws designed to limit misuse of potentially addictive or abuse-prone medicines like opioids or stimulants (like Concerta and Focalin). Calling a pharmacy too many times, or frequently showing up at drugstores asking to know if they have Adderall, can result in patients being blocked from filling their prescriptions.

“Every month I’m made to feel like a criminal just for trying to keep getting my kids the medicine they need,” Jill says.

And the solution is still not perfect. There have been times she sent her son to school without the medication he needs to take during the day, and times when her daughter has had to take high school exams without her medications, Jill says.

Some Workarounds Are Better (and Safer) Than Others

Avoiding these scenarios isn’t easy for patients because their only option when the pharmacy doesn’t have their prescription ready is to call around and ask other drugstores if the medicine is in stock, says Hoffman.

“Acting quickly is important, as I’ve seen situations where pharmacies may have the medication available when called in the morning, but have run out by the afternoon,” Hoffman says.

Online pharmacies may also seem like the perfect solution to people who are worn out by calling every drugstore in town over and over again seeking refills they need. But this isn’t a good idea unless patients confirm they’re using an FDA-licensed online pharmacy, Hoffman cautions.

“When up against the possibility of going without a needed medication, it may be tempting to turn to unlicensed channels such as buying online,” Hoffman says. “These sources are selling unregulated products, so there is no way to be certain of the safety or purity of the medication. The safest approach is to continue to work with local pharmacies to identify when the medication may be in stock.”

To increase your odds of successfully filling a prescription at a brick-and-mortar drugstore, finding out the shipment schedules like Martinez does can often help, Hoffman adds.

Beyond just asking about what day of the week medicines are expected to arrive, adult patients or parents of children with ADHD should also ask about what exact doses and formulations of medicines are anticipated to try to get their doctor to prescribe something that will be in stock, suggests Hoffman. “For example, a pharmacy may be out of stock of the 20-mg tablets, but may have the 10-mg tablets available,” she says.

Above All, Ask Your Healthcare Provider for Help

Amanda Goetz Krupa has only been able to navigate the Adderall shortage by switching to a different medicine and to a different formulation for her son, who has autism and goes to a therapeutic day school in the Chicago area.

Before the shortage made it impossible for Krupa to access Adderall, her son took a form of the drug that could easily be crushed and put in his milk because he couldn’t swallow pills. Then he switched to a Vyvanse patch, but that caused him to have an allergic skin reaction. So Krupa turned to the nurse at his school for help teaching him how to swallow pills, and then switched him to a Vyvanse pill once he mastered this skill.

“It’s a silver lining that we made the switch, because Vyvanse actually works better for him than the Adderall,” Krupa says. “But it’s only an accident that it worked out for him after I went through what everyone else does calling so many pharmacies and going back and forth with the doctors constantly to try to figure things out.”

Kids who have complex medical conditions like autism or anxiety in addition to ADHD can be the hardest to help through drug shortages because they often take multiple medicines that all have to be safe and effective in combination, Augustyn says.

One thing parents should keep in mind is that medicines can be just one piece of treatment for ADHD, along with special education support in school and therapy to help with executive functions like working memory and self-control, Augustyn explains.

“If you’re treating impulsivity where the child runs out into the street and doesn’t listen then it could be a life-threatening emergency when they can’t get medication,” Augustyn says. “But if it’s an issue more with focus and attention in school, then you can time the dosing of medication to have it working for the hours when ADHD is the biggest problem even if you don’t have enough medication to cover later in the day or weekends.”

The most important thing is that patients and parents thinking about medication or dosage changes don’t just wing it on their own without input from their healthcare provider, Hoffman says.

“Some patients may be able to skip doses of their stimulant medication on days without school or work, but this isn’t an option for everyone,” Hoffman says. “Getting the input of the patient’s provider is an important piece of the puzzle when determining if this might be a good approach to take.”