Jass Thethi’s life was transformed after she was diagnosed with ADHD just over a year ago. But the 34-year-old’s joy was short-lived because, like more than 150,000 others who live with the condition and are reliant on medication, Jass has been affected by a UK-wide medicine shortage that started in September. “When the medication shortage started I had to go back to white-knuckling everyday life… I had to take the decision to change things and I had to quit the job I was doing,” said Jass, who lives in Levenshulme, Greater Manchester.
The charity ADHD UK said it had recorded a “significant decline” in the availability of medicines, with only 11% having their normal prescription in January, a drop from 52% in September. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said increased global demand and manufacturing issues were behind the shortages. Dr Morgan Toerien, associate specialist in mental health at Beyond Clinics in Warrington, said many patients’ lives had been “completely destabilised”.
Former charity worker Jass has been without her prescription for six months and told the BBC it had exacerbated her fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over her body. “Not having my ADHD meds means I can’t sleep,” she said. “That means my anxiety is worse and that means the pain gets worse and unfortunately there’s not a lot that can be done as I’m at the top of what they can do for my pain.”
ADHD medication regulates brain function to help patients “switch on” and “switch off”. Dr Toerien said proper medication can have a “profound” impact, adding: “Some people find very small amounts of drugs make a significant impact, some have very profound changes and they find that all of a sudden, they are able to do tasks that they were never able to do before.” ADHD UK estimated about 150,000 people were currently experiencing issues with their medication.
Warrington MP Charlotte Nichols raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions last month and said she was still being contacted by constituents about it. “I’ve been getting more and more contact from people with increasingly desperate stories, people have been rationing their medication, people have been having to ring lots of different pharmacies, and they have been having to make really huge round trips to get the medication they need,” she said
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