ADHD risks ‘crowding out’ telehealth at expense of other psychiatric conditions, Aussie research suggests
An analysis found video prescribing for ADHD medications has grown faster than other psychotropics since 2022.
Telehealth prescribing for ADHD is growing faster than telehealth for other psychotropic treatments and risks diverting resources from other psychiatric conditions, research suggests.
Before Medicare funding for telehealth was thrown open in March 2020, just 4.3% of MBS psychiatric consultations — whether face to face or telehealth — involved a PBS-funded ADHD prescription
This increased to 11.8% after 2022, when the telehealth items were made permanent, according to analysis of almost four million MBS psychiatric consultations, published in Psychiatry Research.
In the same period, the percentage of PBS ADHD prescriptions done via video increased from 1.8% to 23.4%, the Australian and Malaysian researchers said.
