ADHD medications are widely overprescribed and misused, especially among youth

For years, critics warned that ADHD medications were being handed out too freely, particularly to children and teenagers. The pharmaceutical industry, medical establishment, and many doctors dismissed these concerns as overblown. They said the real problem was underdiagnosis — that millions of people with genuine ADHD weren't getting help they needed. Official channels insisted prescribing rates reflected better awareness and diagnosis, not reckless overprescribing. That narrative held considerable sway in medical and policy circles.

But recent research suggests the reality is more complicated and troubling than either side fully acknowledged.

A 2024 Swedish study published in JAMA Psychiatry examined what actually happens when ADHD prescriptions increase across a population. The researchers tracked injury rates, crime statistics, and other real-world outcomes as prescription rates climbed over decades. What they found was striking: the protective benefits of ADHD medication weakened significantly as prescribing expanded. Early on, when medications went to people with the most severe symptoms, the outcomes were measurable and positive. But as prescribing broadened to reach more people, those benefits flattened out. The data suggested that expanded access was reaching populations who simply didn't benefit from treatment — exactly what overprescribing looks like in practice.

Separately, a meta-analysis in Frontiers in Psychiatry quantified the misuse problem. Researchers found that 22.6% of people with access to prescription stimulants misused them in the past year. Another 18.2% diverted their medications to others. These aren't fringe numbers. They represent millions of pills moving through channels they weren't prescribed for, fueling addiction and creating a secondary market for drugs meant to treat neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Swedish study raised a particularly uncomfortable question: if medication benefits decline as you prescribe more broadly, where exactly is the line between appropriate treatment and overprescribing? The answer, it turns out, isn't where many physicians have been drawing it.