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.
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.
Much the same here in the UK.
Once a month, a week before pay day, my phone reminds me to order next month’s pills. I open the NHS app, put the request in, then a few days later I get a text from my local pharmacy to let me know my pills are ready to collect. They cost me £9.50.
It’s not all perfect though. A couple of years ago I moved to a different area that’s served by a different ADHD service, meaning I had to be referred across to them. Fast forward two years, and my referral is still at the ‘waiting list’ stage. So no checkups for me. Medication reviews have to be done using a GP as a kind of proxy service, whereby I request one, then have to make an appointment a few weeks later, after they’ve received advice from the ADHD service. It’s pretty stupid.
I mean, I kinda understand the long, loooong waiting lists to be assessed for ADHD in the first place, but I have a diagnosis and take medication. All I asking for is to be able to contact them directly and go back to having six-monthly checkups to see how I’m getting on.
But ultimately, all of this costs me just £9.50 a month. The GP visits and ‘assistance’ from the ADHD service are free (at the point of use), so can I really complain?