I would be a bit surprised to find that the graph was summing over monthly prescriptions to display an “annual” total.
Separately, 1% seems deeply incongruent with my observations. I would have a much easier time believing 12%, though indeed that does seem a bit high since it includes age brackets which are very unlikely to be taking it.
Getting good numbers is a little tricky. This study claims that 16 million adults used prescription stimulants in 2016, which does technically allow for the possibility that they were on it for one month in that year and would still have been counted. It also says that “Fifty-five percent of total prescriptions in 2015 were to adults age 20 and older”, which lines up well with the 32mm figure in the graph above for 2017 (across the entire population, not just adults).
Edit: anyways, my final take is that I very much doubt the average adderall prescribee only gets it for one month per year, so I think the true number is in fact in the 40mm+ range.
I would be a bit surprised to find that the graph was summing over monthly prescriptions to display an “annual” total.
Separately, 1% seems deeply incongruent with my observations. I would have a much easier time believing 12%, though indeed that does seem a bit high since it includes age brackets which are very unlikely to be taking it.
Getting good numbers is a little tricky. This study claims that 16 million adults used prescription stimulants in 2016, which does technically allow for the possibility that they were on it for one month in that year and would still have been counted. It also says that “Fifty-five percent of total prescriptions in 2015 were to adults age 20 and older”, which lines up well with the 32mm figure in the graph above for 2017 (across the entire population, not just adults).
Edit: anyways, my final take is that I very much doubt the average adderall prescribee only gets it for one month per year, so I think the true number is in fact in the 40mm+ range.