Every year at some point, the medication that my son takes daily to alleviate his symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is completely unavailable for a period of several months. ADHD has become a strangely taboo topic, except for contemplations of whether it's overdiagnosed. (It likely is.)
But my family spent more than a year with a pediatric neurologist doing exhaustive evaluations of my son, and came to the diagnosis carefully. He's had a year and a half of occupational therapy as well, and it's been a wonderful learning process for us all, to understand what his body and brain need and how to provide for those needs in nourishing and productive ways, including medication.
Now the drug manufacturers say they can't get enough raw material, and our son has to switch to other medications that cost 10 times more, are less effective (for my son) and have more side effects (for my son).
Why are we being forced to experiment when we have already found a medication that works? We are fortunate enough to be able to absorb the cost difference, but what about those who can't?
For the third year in a row, we're confronted with the same issue. Why hasn't someone figured this out yet?
