ADHD medication supply problems

Shortages have affected this pathway and providers and commissioners have said so. What is in short supply changes, so the current answer comes from your prescriber and your pharmacy.

The short version

Psychiatry-UK states that waiting times may also be affected by the national ADHD medication shortage.
NHS England refers to global medication supply shortages which have impacted some patients.
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB cites extremely high levels of additional support required due to medication shortages over the past 18 months.
No affected medicine is named here, because that list changes and a stale one would be worse than none.

Medication supply is the part of this subject that changes fastest, which makes it the part where a confident web page is most likely to be wrong. What follows is what named sources have said, with nothing added.

What the sources say

Psychiatry-UK states on its Right to Choose page that due to global drug shortages patients may experience additional delays in prescribing medication for ADHD, and separately that waiting times may also be affected by the national ADHD medication shortage.

NHS England's ADHD taskforce material refers to global medication supply shortages which have impacted some patients.

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB lists, among the pressures on its services, extremely high levels of additional support required due to medication shortages over the past 18 months.

Three different kinds of organisation, describing the same pressure from the provider, national and commissioner perspectives.

Why no list is published here

Which specific medicines are constrained, and where, changes over months rather than years. A list written once and left on a page would eventually tell someone their medicine was unavailable when it was not, or the reverse, and either error has a direct clinical consequence.

So this page names no medicines and gives no supply status. The people who hold the current answer are your prescriber and your pharmacy, and pharmacies in particular know what they can actually obtain this week.

What to do if your medicine is unavailable

Speak to your pharmacy first, since availability differs between pharmacies, and then to your prescriber, who is the only person who can change what is prescribed. Do not change a dose or stop a medicine on your own account because of a supply problem.

If you are mid-titration, tell the service running the titration rather than waiting for the next scheduled contact, because the adjustment schedule is the thing a supply gap disrupts.

Do not self-manage a shortage

Rationing doses, switching between products or sourcing medication outside a prescription are decisions with clinical consequences. Your prescriber and your pharmacy are the right people to take a supply problem to, and they should hear about it early rather than after the supply has run out.

Questions people ask about this

Are ADHD medications still in short supply?

This site does not state a current supply status, because it changes faster than a page can be kept accurate and a stale answer would be worse than none. What named sources have said is that Psychiatry-UK refers to a national ADHD medication shortage affecting waits, NHS England refers to global medication supply shortages which have impacted some patients, and an ICB cites shortages among the pressures on its services. Your pharmacy and your prescriber hold the current answer.

Can a medication shortage delay my ADHD treatment?

Providers say it can. Psychiatry-UK states that due to global drug shortages patients may experience additional delays in prescribing medication for ADHD, and that waiting times may also be affected by the national ADHD medication shortage. If you are mid-titration, tell the service running it rather than waiting for the next scheduled contact.