Differences in abuse potential of ADHD drugs measured by contrasting poison centre and therapeutic use data.

CONTEXT: Atomoxetine (ATX) is the treatment of choice for attention deficit hyperactivity disorders with co-morbid risk of drug abuse, although its abuse potential needs to be qualified. The purpose of this study is to analyse ATX misuse in relation to therapeutic use and compare our results with that of methylphenidate (MPH).

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Data on enquiries were extracted from the Danish Poison Information Centre database (January 2006 to June 2012), while data on therapeutic use were provided by the Danish State Serum Institute (2007-2011).

RESULTS: The study included 28 ATX and 394 MPH enquiries. Frequency of ATX enquiries did not show a significant correlation to either sale or number of treated patients but for MPH, both correlations were significant (p = 0.001 and p = 0.0008, respectively). The enquiries/number of treated patients relationship differed significantly between ATX and MPH (p = 0.018), but not the enquiries/sale relationship. The proportion of exposures motivated by recreational drug use was significantly lower for ATX (19%) than that for MPH (40%) (p = 0.038).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These results suggest that ATX is used by adults for non-medical purposes including recreational use, but to a lesser extent than MPH.