What is the root cause of the shortage and what is being done to address them? Is it a regulation problem or an evil corporation problem?
In: Economics
APA have reviewed its diagnostic criteria in 2014 and it took some time for psychiatrists all over the world to change their diagnostic criteria and treatment appropriately. ICD-11 have only been completed in 2020, and it still have not been translated and validated in many major languages.
New diagnostic criteria means more people are considered to have ADHD now than in the past, when DSM-IV and DSM-IV-R and ICD-10 were around. Older versions for example didn’t consider the diagnosis of ADHD in adult age possible if said adult didn’t have a childhood diagnosis of the disorder.
Because some ADHD drugs are old enough to be available in generic forms as well and don’t sell for that much, companies are not interested in amping up the production. I can buy 60 pills of generic methyphenidate in my country for around 5 dollars. Contrast that with newer medication Venvanse (lisdexamphetamine) that costs ~60 dollars for 30 pills. I’ve never found any pharmacy that did not have Venvanse because of how much more they profit with that.
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