The characteristics of interest included 1 requirement of a prescription; 2 requirement of a health-related questionnaire; 3 offer to speak with a pharmacist; 4 drug-related warnings and precautions on the product page; 5 drug information on the product page, including class of medication; 6 controls on the amount of Adderall that could be ordered e. Characteristics related to marketing were selected on the basis of previous literature. The price and shipping costs of 30 mg Adderall IR and Adderall XR at the most frequently sold quantities of 60, 90, , , and tablets or capsules were collected.
The shipping costs were distributed among the total quantity of pills or capsules in an order. Online pharmacy prices were compared with the prices offered through GoodRx, an online prescription drug coupon site, which is what a U. Of these online pharmacies, LegitScript classified 50 as rogue , whereas 11 were unclassified i.
Traffic to these websites, as determined by www. The traffic to rogue and unclassified websites was low, with most receiving fewer than unique monthly visits. The monthly traffic of the 1 legitimate website was comparatively much larger at million unique monthly visits.
Monthly website traffic unique visits to online pharmacies of different types. Abbreviation used: M, million.
The safety characteristics of all online pharmacies selling Adderall are described in Table 1. Overall, the locations listed on rogue and unclassified online pharmacy websites were not consistent with the locations of their servers as determined by www. Server locations and the respective website-listed locations of online pharmacies in our sample are depicted in Figure 3.
Rogue online pharmacy server locations seldom matched those claimed on the website. The marketing characteristics of all online pharmacies selling Adderall are described in Table 2.
Marketing characteristics stratified by rogue, unclassified, and legitimate pharmacies. For rogue and unclassified online pharmacies, the cost per tablet of 30 mg Adderall IR and cost per capsule of 30 mg Adderall XR at quantities of 60, 90, , , and tablets or capsules are displayed in Figure 4. The single legitimate website www. Drug warnings and precautions, drug information, and the price for Adderall could not be observed on this site because consumers were unable to advance without a member identification and prescription.
The marketing characteristics of the legitimate website did not place an emphasis on price there were no listed price or bulk discounts but did promote accessibility with a phone number listed and an offer to speak with an associate. We found that most online pharmacies selling Adderall were rogue or unclassified by LegitScript. Of 62 online pharmacies claiming to sell Adderall, only 1 was a legitimate seller.
By not requiring a prescription, rogue pharmacies allow the purchase of medications that could be abused, enabling the ill-advised practice of Adderall use without concurrent therapeutic monitoring. With high doses and repeated use of Adderall, the development of psychological amphetamine dependence and adverse events such as weight loss, psychosis, seizures, and cardiovascular events can occur. Those with a valid prescription might receive poor quality medication and be harmed by impurities, fail to achieve therapeutic goals, and suffer from a lack of therapeutic monitoring.
Those without a valid prescription, who might be more inclined to abuse Adderall and take more than the necessary dose, are predisposed to the same known risks as those with a prescription, in addition to the potential for an increased frequency of dose-dependent adverse effects. Concerns related to the purchase of Adderall from rogue online pharmacies are amplified by the marketing characteristics that these pharmacies employ.
As evinced in these pharmacies not placing quantity limits on the amount of Adderall for purchase, rogue online pharmacies intend to sell as much of these products as possible. The sale of Adderall is achieved through varied sales arguments—the appeal to cost-savings, constant customer support, and privacy—that are perhaps the most important for consumers who intend to purchase controlled substances without a prescription.
Rogue online pharmacies appeal to discrete package delivery, protection of patient information, and the use of de-identified forms of payments involving cryptocurrency. These sales arguments, which are designed to lure consumers into purchasing more medications, run counter to reasonable patient care and sensible legislation that aims to protect the public from drugs with abuse and misuse potential.
Previous studies comparing prescription drug prices between online and brick-and-mortar pharmacies have had mixed results depending primarily on the drug studied, with several finding lower costs online.
Compared with prices listed on GoodRx, a popular coupon site for patients purchasing medications without insurance, rogue online pharmacy prices, including shipping costs for Adderall IR and Adderall XR, were nearly 5-fold more expensive per unit. The steep price differential is suggestive of the illegal nature of Adderall purchase without a prescription online.
Simply from a cost standpoint, patients with a valid prescription have little incentive to purchase Adderall from a rogue online pharmacy. This result supports existing literature that among online pharmacies there is a price markup for the purchase of medications without a prescription. Our research showed, however, that rogue online pharmacies often inauthentically claimed registration.
Rogue online pharmacies are creative in their methods to bolster reputability. Although there have been numerous efforts to control the groundswell of rogue online pharmacies, our results suggest that these efforts have not been altogether successful.
Operation Pangea, a cooperative effort led by Interpol in conjunction with FDA and DOJ, has led to the removal of thousands of illegitimate online pharmacies. LegitScript reported helping to close 6, rogue pharmacies in alone.
However, illegitimate online pharmacies are challenging to control because they regularly re-emerge. Although the overall Web traffic to rogue online pharmacies in our results was relatively low Figure 2 , this could be suggestive of the methods that rogue online pharmacies use to avoid detection, regularly closing and opening new websites under unique URLs.
These results demonstrate that search engines are not effectively screening for, and removing, rogue online pharmacies from their search results at present.
In the absence of efficient methods to regulate and remove rogue online pharmacies, it is imperative that search engines acknowledge the pervasiveness of rogue online pharmacies within their search results and take additional measures of control. Search engines should help lead the effort to create a safer online pharmacy landscape through the generation of search algorithms that select for legitimate online pharmacies.
There were several limitations to our study. We limited our screening to websites owing to feasibility. Given this limitation, numerous online pharmacies remained undetected. This limited screening yielded only 1 legitimate pharmacy, precluding an in-depth analysis comparing the characteristics of rogue pharmacies with those of legitimate pharmacies.
To prescribe Adderall, a doctor would first send patients through an assessment route. This assessment is carried out to see if patients meet set criteria or conditions to which Adderall can be prescribed.
Besides prescribing Adderall for ADHD, some doctors may also prescribe Adderall for depression and other related diseases. For example, patients who have severe depression and are facing difficulties with focusing are prescribed Adderall. But again, if the doctor realizes you have other health conditions going on, then the doctor may first prescribe medication for those conditions to see if those are the conditions causing an inability to focus.
And if those medications fail to work, then the doctor may issue you with a prescription for Adderall. However, it can take time to go through the process of being prescribed Adderall. For a doctor to prescribe Adderall as the first medication, there are specific symptoms a doctor screens patients for. These symptoms are often identified as conditions for which Adderall is prescribed. However, even if one may experience these symptoms, not all doctors can prescribe this medication.
Stimulants can raise your heart rate and increase anxiety, so a person with high blood pressure, seizures, heart disease, glaucoma, liver or kidney disease, or an anxiety disorder should tell their doctor about them before taking any stimulant.
Non-stimulants like Strattera can take 4 to 8 weeks to reach maximum effectiveness at the proper dose. Chatigny is board-certified in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and is the medical director of behavioral health with Lee Physician Group. Her treatment interests include emergency psychiatry, treatment resistant depression, complex psychopharmacology, and substance use disorders.
Editor's Note: This blog was updated Feb. What is Adderall? A Doctor Can Help Adderall is not available without a prescription. Jennifer is a contributing health writer who has been researching and writing health content with PlushCare for 3 years.
She is passionate about bringing accessible healthcare and mental health services to people everywhere. Adderall is classified as a controlled substance by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore it is illegal and unethical for any online doctor to prescribe Adderall.
You must meet with a doctor in person to get an Adderall prescription. Controlled substances like Adderall can only be prescribed by a doctor after an in-person visit.
However, there are many other ADHD medications you can get online, such as Strattera ; its generic version, atomoxetine ; guanfacine ; and bupropion. These non-stimulant medications take a few weeks to start working but may treat ADHD as effectively as Adderall without the risk of addiction. Talk to a doctor to get these non-stimulant ADHD medications online.
Even though the board-certified doctors at PlushCare cannot prescribe Adderall, we still want to inform you of its uses, side effects, and role in treating ADHD.
Adderall, which is a combination of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, is primarily used to treat attention deficit disorder ADHD. It can also be used to treat narcolepsy. Always tell your doctor about your complete health history and any medications you take, including supplements and over-the-counter medications. An ADHD diagnosis is typically made after getting a history of symptoms, using symptom checklists, and ruling out physical causes for the symptoms.
Yes, you can get Adderall without health insurance. Since Adderall is a controlled substance, you must see a doctor in person for a prescription.
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