GP ADHD prescribing

Prescribing information

• Prescriber criteria

  • For people with ADHD aged 17 years and under:
    Medical practitioners specialised in paediatrics or psychiatry and nurse practitioners working within paediatric services or child and adolescent mental health services may start people on stimulant treatments for ADHD.
  • For people with ADHD aged 18 years and over:
    Medical practitioners specialised in paediatrics, psychiatry or general practice and nurse practitioners working within their area of practice may start people on stimulant treatments for ADHD.
  • For all age groups:
    Any other medical practitioner or nurse practitioner may only prescribe stimulant treatment for ADHD when acting on the written recommendation of a practitioner described above authorised to start people on stimulant medicines for ADHD.

• Changes to Special Authority criteria

  Pharmac is removing the prescriber restrictions and changing the Special Authority criteria for access to stimulant medicines. The key changes to Pharmac Special Authority criteria include:

  • allowing Special Authority applications from any relevant practitioner
  • amending Special Authority criteria that outline specific specialist application or specialist written recommendation requirements.

• Prescriber considerations

  Psychiatric effects, cardiovascular effects, and risk of seizures should all be considered when prescribing medicines to treat ADHD. Read Medsafe's safety of medicines used to treat ADHD in adults guide.