Are more Adults Using ADHD Medications? Study

A recent study shows how more adults may be taking attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications. In fact, statistics show that over the past few years, ADHD medications have nearly doubled in young adults.

"The rapid increase in adult use of these medications is striking, especially since there is very little research on how these treatments affect an older population," said Express Scripts' Dr. David Muzina, via NBC News. "It signals a need to look more closely at how and why physicians prescribe these medications for adults, particularly women, who may turn to these medications, or experience symptoms of attention disorders, as a result of keeping up with the multiple demands on their time."

Express Scripts-the largest prescription drug manager in charge of processing prescriptions from roughly 90 million Americans-showed that from 2008 to 2012, among 400,000 participants between the ages of four and 64, most had filled out at least one prescription for an ADHD drug.

During this time frame, prescriptions for ADHD almost doubled for adults from 1.7 million in 2008 to 2.6 million in 2012. As boys are more likely to have behavioral problems involving ADHD than girls, statistics also showed that around 10 percent of them were on some kind of ADHD medication. For young adults in general, ADHD medication use also increased from 340,000 to 640,000

"It's hard to dismiss the data in this report," said Brooke Molina, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, via The New York Times. "There are limitations with every study, but it's hard to do anything here but conclude that we have a continually forward-marching increase."

What do you think?

More information regarding the report can be found here.