LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Every mother's worst fear is not being able to provide for their child— one Little Rock mom explained how she felt that firsthand when she was told by multiple pharmacies that they didn't have her son's medication.
"Focalin has worked really well and we haven't had any trouble and then his prescription ran out a couple of weeks ago. It's usually around the middle of the month and I call our pharmacy and they told me, we don't have any it's on backorder," Bailey Lorenzen said.
Lorenzen said her son Ben was diagnosed at birth with ADHD and started taking stimulant medications like Focalin to help him focus about four years ago. With the nationwide shortage, these types of medications have given Ben quite the scare.
"He does worry, because he knows that helps him but he said if I try really, really hard, I can focus. Like, I know, but [he] shouldn't have to do that for seven plus hours a day, five days a week, you know, work that hard," Lorenzen described.
Children with ADHD usually have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors, and more but Lorenzen said although there are so many negative connotations around people who have ADHD she chooses to focus on the positive because there is so much more to Ben than meets the eye.
"Ben is the sweetest boy, he's so precious, he's thoughtful, and kind but he is getting to an older age where he understands why he needs it, that it does work. you know, he knows the difference between I can tell when it's working versus when it's not," Lorenzen added.
The frustration of not having these stimulant medications on the shelves doesn't stop at just parents and doctors. Pharmacies have also been struggling to fill prescriptions for patients diagnosed with ADHD.
"We can't get those prescriptions if there's zero place to get them from and it's not something you can try to search other wholesalers for because since it is a schedule II narcotic we can only get it from our primary wholesaler," said Anne Pace with Kavanaugh Pharmacy.
She said the ADHD medication shortage is usually something they see at the end of the year, however as the demand grows for more people needing ADHD meds the shortage came sooner this year rather than later.
"Lots more prescriptions have started to be written over the last few years and so lots more prescriptions are being filled, or trying to be filled for this type of medication. It's a stimulant medication, Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse those are some of the common names of what people would recognize as medications used to treat this condition. And also part of the problem we're noticing is a problem is the DEA only allows these companies that make the medications to produce a certain amount each year," Pace said.
The United States Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration sent a letter addressing the medication shortage which said, "We are working closely with numerous manufacturers, agencies, and others in the supply chain to understand, prevent, and reduce the impact of these shortages."