The use of drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in younger adults more than doubled from 2000 to 2004, and spending on the drugs in the same age bracket, 20 to 44, more than quadrupled, a major prescription management company is reporting today.
The pills are also becoming increasingly popular among women. Indeed, adult women are now just as likely as men to take them, said the company, Medco Health Solutions. Among children, use by boys is nearly three times as likely as by girls.
One percent of adults ages 20 to 64 now take the drugs, according to Medco, which administers pharmaceutical benefits for managed care companies.
"I think this shows a clear recognition and new thinking that treatment for A.D.H.D. does not go away for many children after adolescence," said Dr. Robert S. Epstein, the company's chief medical officer.
Dr. James McGough, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, said more adults should probably be taking the pills. A recent study by Harvard researchers found that as many as 4 percent of adults had symptoms of the disorder, Dr. McGough noted. Of the Medco report, he said, "I think it's a good sign that this is increasingly recognized and people are getting help."
But Dr. Alexander Lerman, a New York specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry, said psychiatrists were using increasingly vague definitions of the disorder to conclude that adults with mild symptoms needed medication. For those who truly need the medicines, Dr. Lerman said, they can be highly useful. For others, the drugs, which are generally stimulants, can cause even more problems, he said.
"I think this is a very mixed bag," Dr. Lerman said. "Stimulants are mood destabilizers. They make people more emotionally unstable, depressed, irritable, less social and obsessive."
Dr. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral developmental pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., pointed out that stimulants often promoted weight loss, which could be one explanation for their increasing use.
The use of medications for attention-deficit disorder grew faster from 2000 to 2004 than the use of any other class of medication except treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, the Medco study found.
Courtesy NY Times
Bonnie - this is a disturbing trend. Like statin meds, this may be Big Pharma's next push to get most of America to take ADD drugs.
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