Neurodivergence

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Venting about medication shortages (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Kuroneko@beehaw.org to c/neurodivergence@beehaw.org

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Thanks to the DEA’s massive overreach, for the third time in 5 or so months I’ve had to call a pharmacy outside my area to get my Concerta. My regular pharmacy gave me what they had, which I’m grateful for, but that left me short 7 pills. I then had to:

-Find a pharmacy that had the medicine I needed in the proper dose

-Call my doctor to have him send a new prescription over to that pharmacy since you’re not allowed to just show them your current one

-Drive about 15-20 minutes to get there

-Wait in line, give them my driver’s license (which I don’t have to do at my normal pharmacy) and sign a bunch of shit before finally leaving with it.

I’m just tired of this song and dance. Concerta works best for me though and isn’t too expensive with a coupon. I just want the DEA to stop micromanaging ADHD meds. I understand some oversight is needed but they go way overboard. Feel free to vent your frustration here as well.

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[–] rowinofwin@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

That sucks, it seems to be a fairly consistently awful experience over there in USA land.

Here in Australia it is really very different. I went to a GP and got a referral to a local psychiatrist who dealt with ADHD. The GP appointment cost $0, the referral cost $0. I have an appointment with a psychiatrist and the initial appointment was about $500. I got a script and took it to a random pharmacy and got a month of meds for $5.30. I tried that first set and it was obviously useful and a massive upgrade in my function. I went back after the first month to my second appointment and had my dose doubled. The second appointment cost about $350, the meds cost $5.30 again. This happened two more times and I ended up on a high dose of Concerta with supplemental Ritalin.

Currently every 6 months I have an appointment with my psychiatrist which costs me about $150 and my meds cost about $15 per month ($6.30 per script, but two monthly Concerta and one 2 monthly Ritalin). So for about $250 per 6 months or about $500 per year I manage my ADHD. I don't have any health insurance at all, I am on the standard government system called Medicare.

Also, we don't have the same restrictions as you, but if you have multiple repeats of a script then they all have to be dispensed through the same pharmacist, you can't have it from one pharmacist one month and another the next.

Honestly I love the Australian Medicare system. There are problems with it but I really appreciate it and I would not be on these meds without it.