Shire Part of Coalition to Prevent ADHD Medication Misuse on College Campuses

As a company focused on developing the kind of innovative specialty medicines that meet significant unmet patient needs, Shire has long recognized its responsibility to provide not just a pill or an infusion product, but education and support for all those impacted by a diagnosis.

For the patients and healthcare providers and caregivers of those affected by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Shire has created, through the years, a variety of resources: Brochures explaining the diagnosis. Links to patient communities. Support of initiatives that help treat the whole person.

“CPAMM is determined to make a difference, it’s not just doing studies, creating a web site, and launching initiatives. It will be measuring its impact in a variety of ways and building the kind of educational programs and tools whose impact on college campuses will be quantifiable.”

Perry Sternberg, Head of the Neuroscience Business Unit

This year, Shire has announced its participation in a new organization—Coalition to Prevent ADHD Medication Misuse (CPAMM)—whose mission to help prevent the misuse, abuse, and diversion of ADHD prescription stimulant medication, with an initial emphasis on college age students. CPAMM aims to serve as a trusted source of information about a complex matter.

“CPAMM is placing its initial focus on college age students for many reasons,” says Perry Sternberg, head of the Neuroscience Business Unit at Shire. “It’s clear, for example, that confusion surrounds the topic. On the one hand, many college students who use ADHD prescription stimulant medication for nonmedical purposes do not understand the health and legal risks involved. 

On the other, there is a false impression that taking such medications always leads to better grades. Through research, through conversations with young people and the distribution of accurate information, CPAMM hopes to help those in that transitional time of their lives make the right decisions.”

Among the initiatives already launched or in the works are a study of the perceptions and attitudes of college students around the issue; a series of focus groups among college students and administrators to help illuminate how the college environment affects the issue and how peer-to-peer interventions might help prevent ADHD stimulant medicine misuse; and outreach to relevant organizations, associations, and programs so that the greatest possible number of college students will have access to relevant information and resources. More information about CPAMM is available at www.CPAMM.org.

Beyond Shire, other partners in the Coalition are The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), The Jed Foundation, NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and The BACCHUS Initiatives of NASPA. Student advisors are also being enlisted to help inform the Coalition’s strategies and messaging. 

Shire is the sole funder of CPAMM. “CPAMM is determined to make a difference,” says Sternberg. “It’s not just doing studies, creating a web site, and launching initiatives. It will be measuring its impact in a variety of ways and building the kind of educational programs and tools whose impact on college campuses will be quantifiable. Shire is pleased to be a member of an organization that is both so focused on doing good and so very timely.”

Find out more at 
www.CPAMM.org