695 - The Shortage of Stimulant Medications for Kids with ADHD

Public Health On Call

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

News, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.6 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stimulant medications can significantly increase the quality of life for kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Dr. Rheanna Platt talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about how a shortage of these meds is impacting patients and their families. They discuss what's behind the shortages and address questions about whether overuse of these drugs among adults is a contributor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
0:05.9	where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.
0:16.3	If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhh.edu.
0:23.8	That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes.
0:31.9	This is Lindsay Smith Rogers.
0:34.5	Today, the shortage in stimulant medications for children with ADHD. Rihanna Plott,
0:40.2	a child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, speaks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the value of these
0:45.6	medicines and how the shortage is both hurting families and widening disparities. Let's listen.
0:53.8	Dr. Rihanna Platt, thank you so much for joining me on public
0:58.2	health on call to talk about the shortage of stimulant medications for children. And I'd like to
1:04.4	start with a basic question. Why do some children take stimulant medications in the first place?
1:12.0	So stimulant medications are really one of the best treatments that we have for a condition
1:18.0	called ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
1:23.2	Tell me about that condition.
1:24.7	How does it manifest itself in children?
1:45.9	So ADHD is what we call a developmental disorder and it can present in several different ways. As you can imagine from the name, sometimes it can present primarily with inattention or attention deficit. And what that could look like is just someone who really struggles to attend to what's going on around them, struggles to stay focused. And you can imagine how that could be a big challenge when you're in a
1:51.8	classroom. For other kids, they primarily may appear hyperactive or the HD part of ADHD. You know, those kids may have trouble controlling impulses.
2:04.6	They may interrupt other people and not necessarily in an intentional way, but that they just may
2:11.2	struggle with this. And then some kids present with both types of symptoms in attention and hyperactivity.
2:19.0	And they can be quite disruptive.
2:20.6	It can impair the learning environment for all the kids, but also really make it harder for kids to succeed in school.
2:27.6	Yes, there's the kids who may have trouble paying attention, who just then may tend to fall behind in school.
	...

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