Adult ADHD Medication on the Rise in New Zealand

A rise in ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) diagnoses in New Zealand adults between 2006-2022 has been reported via a survey of pharmacists who dispense treatment, with the trend being put down to a growing awareness of the disease and its symptoms, experts say. An estimated 2.58 percent of the adult population, or around 167,000 are afflicted, and results detail that only 0.6 percent of those are on medication. A study by researchers from the University of Otago, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, looked at the prescriptions of 70,000 people via dispensing data from pharmaceutical collection and found a ten-fold increase in dispensing rates for key treatment drugs methylphenidate and atomoxetine....