Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9418
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Hart C.
ADHD treatment skips curbs
The Australian 2007 Apr 16
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21562983-23289,00.html
Full text:
A PUBLICLY subsidised treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that has serious psychiatric side-effects will not be subject to the same prescription guidelines as other ADHD drugs in at least two states.
NSW and Western Australia have addressed community concerns about the overuse of ADHD drugs by regulating and restricting prescription of stimulant drugs such as Ritalin.
But the new ADHD treatment, Strattera, which was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme on Thursday at a cost of $101.2million for the first four years, will be outside these regulations because it is not a stimulant.
Global pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which developed Prozac, has highlighted Strattera’s status as the only non-stimulant treatment for ADHD available in Australia.
The public subsidy for Strattera is only available in cases where patients have exhausted other treatment options but some health professionals have voiced concerns that doctors will flout the rule and use it as a first-line treatment.
Eli Lilly says Strattera, which has the potential to cause suicidal tendencies and stunt growth, is the most extensively studied psychiatric drug for children and has been a “safe and effective treatment option for children, adolescents and adults suffering from ADHD”.
West Australian state parliamentarian Martin Whitely said he was concerned there would be a spike in the number of children given drugs to treat ADHD because Strattera was not subject to the same prescription guidelines in the state.
In 2003, Western Australia introduced a mandatory Stimulants Registration Scheme, which restricts the prescription of stimulants to patients with ADHD to doctors with a state-issued Stimulant Prescriber Number and requires them to provide details about the prescription including the name and age of the patient.
The number of ADHD drugs prescribed plunged after the introduction of the register, falling more than 55 per cent between 2003 and 2005.
Mr Whitely, who pushed for the stimulant register, said it would take at least 18 months to change the existing stimulants register to include Strattera.
“We’ve had some success but this decision has undone all of that good work by giving quick and careless prescribers the opportunity to prescribe a drug that’s not monitored as closely,” Mr Whitely said.
“I’m appalled by the decision to put $101million into a drug that temporarily manages symptoms at best and at worst makes kids want to kill themselves.”
In NSW, only specialists who are authorised by the NSW Department of Health may prescribe stimulant medication.
Australian Childhood Foundation CEO Joe Tucchi said he wrote to Health Minister Tony Abbott asking for Strattera to be banned altogether.
Dr Tucchi said other less harmful ADHD treatments, including counselling, should be promoted instead.
