Part 3: The Cost of Private ADHD Prescriptions in the UK

This is going to hurt.

It’s going to be a short post this week. To quote John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” On Monday, we adopted another dog — a three-month-old puppy called Nova. 

Matthew Hughes @matthewhughes

New dog, who this?

If you’ve ever adopted a puppy, you know they’re hard work. I am very, very tired. I’m researching a fairly substantial post about NHS ADHD waiting lists, while also working on a guide to exercising the “Right to Choose” we talked about last week. 

Assuming Nova doesn’t chew the power cables for all of my laptops (we’re currently one-for-three) and her repeated indoor pooping doesn’t drain all my energy, I’ll try and post one of those stories. 

This week, however, we’re going to take a breezy look at private prescriptions. Or, more specifically, the costs involved with a private prescription. 

Private ADHD Prescriptions: A TL;DR

This topic likely only relates to those who skip the NHS and Right to Choose waiting lists by paying out-of-pocket for a diagnosis. While many adult ADHD psychiatrists will work with your NHS GP (something called Shared Care, which we discussed last week), there are times you might want to pay for a private prescription. 

Put simply: there’s a lag between the time your private psychiatrist issues a new medication or changes your dose, and when your NHS GP will put it on your prescription list. That time varies quite a bit. 

If you feel especially impacted by your ADHD symptoms, or you’re simply eager to start treatment, you may find yourself willing to pay the cost of a private script. I’m speaking from experience here. 

And so, there are a few things you need to know:

• Private ADHD prescriptions are arse-clenchingly expensive. I paid around £90 for the first month of Elvanse 30mg (Vyvanse, for our American cousins). When I switched to Medikinet XL (a slow-release Ritalin-type drug), I paid just north of £110. 

• The price reflects the dosage. I’m currently waiting on a private Elvanse 70mg script (for reasons that are too boring to get into, I switched back after realizing Medikinet just wasn’t working for me). That’ll cost me around £130. Higher doses cost more.

• There’s little price transparency. In the UK, private prescriptions are the exception and not the norm. Pharmacies don’t typically list their private prescription costs on their websites. You typically only find out the cost when you come to pay. 

• In some cases, you can phone the pharmacy ahead of time and ask for a quote. Not all pharmacies allow this, however. While Cohen’s could give me a price over the phone, Superdrug would only tell me the cost when I pick up the prescription. 

• In short, it is possible to shop around, albeit to a limited extent. But it’s time-consuming and cumbersome.

One last point: ADHD drugs vary in price. Frontline drugs are cheaper, because that’s how economies of scale work. 

When you move beyond what’s commonly prescribed, your costs will soar. Just like how a fast food burger is cheaper than one from a sit-down restaurant, even though the basic ingredients are the same.

Adderall is a great example of this. It’s a drug that’s almost never prescribed in the UK (even though it’s highly effective). Looking at FOIA data, we see it was only prescribed a handful of times on the NHS during 2018. And very few pharmacies stock it. 

It’s possible to obtain it on a private prescription, sure, but you can expect to pay over £1,000 for a month’s supply. In some cases, much more.

Adderall is something only really accessible to the cashed-up. Those living in the narrow overlap of the “rich” and “ADHD-addled” Venn diagram. And because it’s so uncommon, only a handful of pharmacies actually stock it. 

It probably would work out cheaper to fly to the US and obtain a prescription there, although that is a legally thorny area, and not one I would recommend because I’d rather my handful of readers don’t end up in Belmarsh.

From my brief research on the topic, it appears a long-term UK resident would have to get permission from the Home Office to import their meds. 

(Because screw anyone trying to manage a chronic health condition, right?) 

Conclusion

When it comes to saving money on your private ADHD prescriptions, you only have two real choices:

• Wait for the NHS to prescribe the meds, bringing your cost down to a nice flat £9. 

• Call around to find the best price.

You can soften the blow somewhat if you have a private health cash plan. My workplace, for example, pays for SimplyHealth. This allows me to claim £15 back off my prescription costs during one calendar year. 

£15 ain’t much, but it’s better than nothing. 

Anecdotes aren’t data. Still, I asked a friend (a freelance pharmacist who works for most of the major chains. Hi Vlad!) for some tips. He said Cohen’s and Superdrug tend to be the cheapest. I trust him, and so I’d recommend people start their searches there.

One last point: ADHD meds are a life-changing thing. There’s nothing wrong with spending the money to start treatment. There’s no shame in wanting to put the train back on the tracks.

As always, if you have any comments, feel free to drop me a tweet or an email. Or leave a comment below.