Faking Adult ADHD?
ByA recent study recently reported that up to 22% of ADHD adults either fake or exaggerate their symptoms. This may be to get ADHD medication, or higher doses of ADHD medication. You can read more about this here.
In this ‘internet era’, it is very easy for people to spend 20 minutes on google, and know all about the symptoms that are used to diagnose ADHD. This is a risk.
At the same time, there are literally millions of adults with ADHD who can’t find a specialist or doctor who can help them with a proper and thorough diagnosis – to get the help that they really need.
Why do these ‘fakers’ want to get their hands on ADHD medications?
When ADHD medications are taken as prescribed, they are helpful and safe. When they are misused – either by being diverted, or misused, they can be quite problematic. When people misuse them – they may take their own prescriptions in a way that wasn’t prescribed – i.e. they may save us several days of their short acting medication and crush the pills and snort them. By doing this, they cause the medication to get to their brain much more quickly, and they can get a high. Or, they may take stimulant medications late at night to cram for university exams – and this can be medically dangerous. Diversion refers to the situation when people use their medications in other ways – i.e. they sell them, give them to their friends, or find other creative uses for them which are wrong. Diverting stimulant medication is actually illegal. All of this is medically dangerous.
What should happen?
It is very important that doctors do thorough assessments for adult ADHD. They need to gather information about the long term history of the disorder, (hopefully) get information from other sources – including family members, even old report cards – which help to corroborate the diagnosis, etc. If people get a proper diagnosis, then we can ‘cut down’ the fakers from misusing the prescription medications.
The other thing to do is for doctors to use the newer generation of long acting medications. These medications are much less abusable, and tend to have a lower street value because of that.
This is an important issue.
What has your experience been? Please share your thoughts below…
Best,
Dr. Kenny
I wish they had put more info in that article. I would like to know how much ADD / ADHD education or training the doctors had. There are still too many GP’s who don’t know what to look for in adult ADD / ADHD. I would also like to know the average age of the patients these doctors think may be faking ADD / ADHD.
Tara I agree with you that many do not know what to look for. But given the fact that this condition has not been emphasized in the past and the defensive medicine most have to practice, it should come as no surprise a few dismiss the complaints as something else.
I gather this might be a problem with younger people or college students. The concern, however, is somewhat misguided. What exactly does impairment mean anyway? I seem to have every symptom in many of the symptom lists, but my old report cards are good to excellent and am currently in a Ph.D. program. Impairment in academia was not a problem for me until it came time to have to face a major statistics exam. I had incredible help and assistance throughout childhood and high intelligence which masked symptoms. I’m not one to seek out meds – in fact I am afraid of them – but I eventually succumbed because things were very challenging. ADHD is not a one-size fits all diagnosis; after all, the problems the disorder creates exist in everyone to some extent – we are simply on one end of the curve of normal human traits for restlessness, concentration, memory and timeliness. There is no cut-off to determine whether one does or does not have ADHD. And it has been shown that the stimulants help even those who do not have the disorder. I am not one to advocate widespread use of these medicines; but the concern about “faking” symptoms seems exaggerated. After all, in Europe and pretty much the rest of the world, we are all “faking” something – they don’t medicate for ADHD at all; it is seen nearly exclusively as a childhood disorder if it is even recognized. Just as many have said to us as kids – we all just need to try harder. Trying harder does work, but it is so much more challenging for some of us than others, and that needs to be recognized more widely in society. If drugs are safe and can be used wisely and in moderation to help someone who self-identifies as having a problem, it should not be a medical, legal or ethical issue.
I have taken vyvance or vyvense before. I do not have ADHD or anything like that. I had gotten one off my friend who has ADHD. I found it unharmful and very useful for last minute studying or homework as i was wide awake all night. I did notice side effects such as : loss of appetite, hot & cold flushes, sore mouth as if i had jawlock, and a slight headache. These were 70mg tablets. I dont see anything wrong with taking them un-prescribed to you, aslong as you are not taking them.every day to cause an addiction. I felt i could have a better night and less worries while under the influence of this tablet.