Ritalin mills

One of the contributors to the Ritalin boom of the last decade has been the so-called Ritalin mills—that is, those clinics or practices where the main role of the physician is to diagnose ADHD and prescribe Ritalin. 

Although there is no direct proof of the existence of Ritalin mills, the following numbers point to the possibility that a small number of doctors are responsible for writing most of the prescriptions for Ritalin. In Michigan, a survey of prescriptions found that 5% of the pediatricians had prescribed 50% of the Ritalin in the state. In Delaware, 6% of purchasers (which include clinics, physicians, and pharmacies) wrote 26.2% of Ritalin prescriptions. In Virginia, 2 out of 1,309 providers, or an astonishing 0.01%, wrote 26% of the Ritalin prescriptions for the entire state. 

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