A new study found about half of physicians believe medication diversion is common in teens with ADHD, but very few have been trained on the subject.
The study also found one-third of physicians rarely counsel teens on the consequences of ADHD medication diversion and do not feel qualified to do so, a North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System news release reported.
"Diversion of stimulation medications for ADHD by high school and college students is widespread as those with ADHD are often sharing pills with their peers, who don't have the condition, to try to improve their academic performance," Andrew Adesman, MD, senior investigator and chief of developmental behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, said in the news release. "Many pediatric colleagues don't feel adequate in counseling their ADHD patients about diverting stimulant medications or are unfamiliar with some of the legal and health consequences of non-ADHD patients taking an unprescribed controlled substance."
The research team looked at responses in 815 physicians who specialized in ADHD. They found that over the previous year 59 percent of physicians suspected some of their teen patients were diverting their medications and 51 percent suspected patients were exaggerating their symptoms to obtain more medications to divert. The patients could have been doing this to improve academic performance, lose weight, sell to others, or get high.
The team found most of these physicians had not received training in preventing medication diversion.
"A patient taking an ADHD medication has been titrated up to a certain dose over time. If someone else takes another person's dose it can be risky because there is no health history and medication naiveté can lead to potential risks, especially if there is an underlying heart condition," Dr. Adesman said.
"While many prevention strategies can be used to prevent diversion of stimulant medication- informational brochures, a medication contract, pill counts, limiting pill quantities, counseling and other methods, our research showed that while doctors are encouraged to use many of these strategies, most MDs don't believe the strategies to be effective," Dr. Adesman said. "It is important that physicians treating patients with ADHD are continually educated about stimulant diversion problems and become active in mitigating this from happening."
