Number of people dispensed ADHD treatments by age and gender, 2016 to 2020

15 February 2021  

Dear [name and contact details withheld] 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 

Thank you for your request dated 15 January 2021 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to the ADHD treatments data provided in PHARMAC’s 2017 ‘Going to your head’ publication. [PDF, 447 KB]

You asked for updated ADHD treatment usage data (for individual patients) to inform an updated graph as shown on page 10 of ‘Going to your head’.

Please find summary data in the table below of the number of people who were dispensed ADHD treatments in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 (based on age at the end of the corresponding year).

Number of people dispensed ADHD treatments

 

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Age band

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

90+

1

 

2

2

2

4

3

3

2

3

85-89

4

3

5

7

4

5

5

3

6

3

80-84

9

10

7

5

6

4

11

5

10

5

75-79

9

14

9

17

11

22

16

27

16

29

70-74

20

38

26

49

31

54

30

62

33

63

65-69

38

77

44

76

46

82

48

83

62

87

60-64

61

105

76

125

82

135

106

172

121

191

55-59

119

189

132

198

147

226

161

242

208

280

50-54

189

255

194

296

247

337

301

405

325

472

45-49

229

372

266

409

303

472

348

540

449

599

40-44

254

379

284

452

326

526

403

607

495

733

35-39

244

498

287

561

332

716

432

822

573

1,006

30-34

313

684

389

813

481

965

585

1,159

775

1,455

25-29

426

1,106

463

1,252

624

1,379

759

1,493

985

1,743

20-24

508

1,280

612

1,375

707

1,555

878

1,728

1,135

1,847

15-19

860

2,537

961

2,769

1,064

3,017

1,205

3,264

1,503

3,551

10-14

1,088

4,371

1,155

4,768

1,296

5,224

1,417

5,864

1,656

6,421

05-09

634

2,711

712

2,913

764

3,138

841

3,410

896

3,662

00-04

5

23

4

16

3

29

5

27

2

26

Total

5,011

14,652

5,628

16,103

6,476

17,890

7,554

19,916

9,252

22,176

Please note, we are unable to produce an updated graph similar to the graph shown on page 10 of the ‘Going to your head’ publication at this time. We trust that this information answers your queries.

We are making our information more freely available, so we will now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this.

Yours sincerely

Rachel Read
Manager, Policy and Government Services