The number of prescriptions for ADHD medications may be increasing because drugmakers are paying physicians who write the prescriptions, an analysis published Jan. 21 in JAMA Pediatrics suggests.
Researchers found that between 2013 and 2018, drugmakers paid more than $20 million to physicians that prescribed stimulants, including ADHD medications. About 55,000 pediatricians, psychiatrists and family doctors received food, travel expenses, consulting and speaking fees, or other payments, STAT reported.
Though the researchers say the payments aren't definitively tied to an increase in prescribing, they argue that it is unlikely drugmakers would invest so much money if it didn't result in more prescriptions.
Pediatricians got 40.4 percent of the total payments and more than 19 percent of those were for stimulants, while psychiatrists got 56.7 percent of the payments, and almost 18 percent were linled to stimulants, according to STAT.
Family doctors got 18 percent of the $20 million.
As many as 1 in 5 pediatricians may have received a marketing payment between 2013 and 2018. More than 97 percent of the $20 million was in the form of food and beverages.
A previous study cited by STAT found that prescriptions for ADHD stimulants doubled between 2006 and 2016.
The JAMA study was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Thrasher Research Fund and the Academic Pediatric Association.
Read the full article here.