ADHD fast becoming a grown-up disease

The majority of attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD) drug prescriptions are now going to adults, not children, according to data compiled by drug company Shire Plc.

The turn comes as a surprise to many observers who think of ADHD as a childhood disorder. But the treatment data say otherwise. Shire found 53 percent of the 63 million total ADHD medication prescriptions in 2014 went to adults. That is up from just 39 percent of prescriptions in 2007.

Experts offer several explanations for the jump. First, many children are not outgrowing ADHD as they move into adulthood and are keeping their medication prescriptions. A 2013 study in the journal Pediatrics found nearly 30 percent of children with ADHD continued to have symptoms as adults. Study authors said the disorder often needs a lifelong treatment approach.

“We suffer from the misconception that ADHD is just an annoying childhood disorder that’s over treated,” lead researcher Dr. William Barbaresi of Boston Children’s Hospital said in a statement. “This couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to have a chronic-disease approach to ADHD as we do for diabetes. The system of care has to be designed for the long haul.”

A second explanation for the jump is that many adults with ADHD went undiagnosed as children. But now, when their children are diagnosed and they learn the disorder is often inherited, they may see similar symptoms in their own lives and seek medical evaluations.

But behind the scenes, another factor could be pushing up the number of adults prescribed ADHD drugs. Shire, the Ireland-based drug company that released the latest compiled data, has a player in the game. Shire makes Vyvance, the market’s hottest ADHD drug. In 2014, Vyvance generated $1.4 billion in sales, up 18 percent from the previous year. Its closest competitor, Johnson and Johnson’s Concerta, generated $599 million dollars in sales in 2014, according to reporting by Bloomberg.

Because adults are the fastest growing group of new patients for ADHD medication, Shire instructed its drug sales reps to focus on studies that show the benefits of the medication for adults when discussing the drug with doctors, according to Bloomberg.

“We’ve shifted more effort into the adult ADHD market, which is now more than half of the overall market and has the highest growth,” Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov told analysts.

And Shire is not stopping there. The company hopes to boost sales by further expanding the market for Vyvance. It is studying the drug, currently approved for adults and children between 6 and 17 years old, as a treatment option or preschoolers with ADHD. The FDA also recently approved its use as a treatment for Binge Eating Disorder.