MONDAY, March 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- During the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of new stimulant prescriptions dispensed to adults accelerated rapidly, according to a study published online March 9 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.
Tara Gomes, Ph.D., from ICES at the University of Toronto, and colleagues examined patterns of stimulants dispensed to adults in Ontario using population health administrative data between January 2016 and June 2024. An interrupted time-series analysis was conducted to assess the immediate and sustained impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stimulant dispensing rates.
Data were included for 327,053 adults who initiated stimulants (median age, 31 years; 55.4 percent female). The researchers found that new recipients during the pandemic were more likely to be aged 25 to 34 years (26.5 versus 32.8 percent) and female (48.0 versus 59.0 percent) compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic, while stimulants were less likely to be initiated by psychiatrists (25.5 versus 18.0 percent). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of new stimulant dispensations was stable (change in monthly rate per 1,000 people, 0.0004), declined immediately after the start of the pandemic (−0.0067), and then accelerated (0.0029); from January 2016 to June 2024, there was an increase from 0.16 to 0.44 dispensations per 1,000 people.
"While greater awareness of adult ADHD has likely supported many people accessing timely care, the speed of rising stimulant prescribing in this population alongside more nonspecialist initiation, increasing virtual care, and shorter assessment timelines also raises concerns about the quality of diagnostic practices," Gomes said in a statement.