S1 Ep170: Medication Shortage, Adderall Shortage, What Are YOU To Do?

Everyday Health Hacker by Dr. Liza Leal

During the pandemic public became wary of shortages of many things, including toilet paper. Today, the concern for medication is a real concern. What should you do if you receive a call from your doctor's office or pharmacy that your needed medication is no longer available? We will cover a few immediate options that you can take. 1. Consider different dosages, for example if you normally receive a 30 mg dose of Adderall, you may have to consider a 20 and a 10 mg or three 10 mg tablets as your dosage. The difficulty that arises from this change of prescription is that it is recorded in many states' Prescription Monitoring Program. Which means that instead of dispense 30 tablets you may have to receive 90 tablets of a smaller dosage. These numbers are all reported to the government monitoring program, which many patients are leery of.
While we encourage natural supplements for our patients many may need ADD/ADHD medication to stay concentrated in school or their workplace. If you find you have encountered a shortage immediately ask if there is an alternative dosage your doctor can e-script in and immediately ask for the pharmacist to cancel the previous one, by doing so this helps protect you and your doctor's license.
Other shortages have included: a few months ago, we found difficulty with a shortage of a popular type 2 diabetic medication, it was mainly caused by viral videos of weight loss a benefit of the medication for many patients used on label and off-label.
Hypertensive medications have had to be changed due to re-calls.
While many patients found these issues frustrating, we shared with each patient this is a new opportunity to find alternative methods of therapy and treatment and many patients were able to change there lifestyle and have weight loss, with the effect of no longer needing the medication. While patients with ADD/ADHD found new opportunities in their career that kept them focused and excited about their endeavors with a new drive in knowing that they were no longer dependent on the medication they took all through Middle School and High School.
Every obstacle in medication, we find new solutions and new studies help us daily to be better doctors and better providers. We hope today's episode provides food for thought. If you should have any questions please do not hesitate to call us at 281-265-6565 or email us at [email protected].
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Hosted by Dr. Liza Leal and @MikeHerzing of @LetTalkWheels with Gow Media Nationally Syndicated Radio.