NO,
CEREBRAL IS NOT CURRENTLY PRESCRIBING SCHEDULE 2 DRUGS FOR ADHD.
Peruse their official press release here.
On May 5th, 2022, the popular mental health company Cerebral announced that they will no longer prescribe stimulant drugs to ADHD patients. They will continue to prescribe stimulants to existing customers, but effective May 9th, they will only offer new patients non-stimulant options such as therapy for ADHD and stop prescribing popular schedule 2 drugs such as Aderall and Ritalin.
The Wall Street Journal recently broke the news that Truepill, Cerebral’s primary pharmacy partner, officially decided to suspend fulfillment of the company’s stimulant scripts “out of an abundance of caution.” That was after the journal reported that other pharmacies such as CVS and Walmart also blocked or delayed prescriptions from the company.
Cerebral’s mission is to democratize access to mental health care, but many fear they make it too easy to access powerful stimulants, especially for young adults. Given the importance and sensitive nature of mental health treatment, we agree that an abundance of caution seems like the right step.
Is Cerebral's decision permanent?
Cerebral has only stopped prescribing adderall indefinitely, signaling to us that this is a temporary move as they “evaluate appropriate next steps.” Should they determine their practices are safe, we expect them to start prescribing adderall and other stimulants for ADHD again.
Has Cerebral been overprescribing adderall?
It’s hard to quantify whether Cerebral has been overprescribing adderall for ADHD. After all, what is the appropriate level of prescription, anyway?
On the one hand, you can’t deny how easy telehealth startups like Cerebral and direct competitor Done have made it to get adderall online. Diagnosis is dead simple, and can be done within a day or so without you having to leave the house.
After filing out a quick survey, you just chat with a doctor on Zoom for half an hour. For anyone with the explicit goal of getting a prescription, it wouldn’t be hard to google “symptoms of ADHD” and then regurgitate them back during their virtual session with a doctor.
To be clear, I don’t have evidence to support that adderall abuse on Cerebral has been rampant, but it’s not hard to imagine how it could become a problem.
On the other hand, an uptick in prescriptions and usage doesn’t necessarily spell an epidemic. From where we sit, it’s unclear how many victims have been hurt from the alleged overprescription of adderall – the damage still needs to be quantified.
Overall, the last thing we need is another opioid epidemic, so we applaud Cerebral’s decision to tread lightly, measure the impact on society and adjust.
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