ADHD Weekly- Traveling with ADHD Medication: What to Know

[KarenADHDWeekly]

Travel can be a great adventure and offer enrichment for families with children. Parents need to plan a few steps ahead, though, when carrying their child’s medication on a trip. Get tips on traveling at bit.ly/NRCTravelwMeds

[im-blue]

I recently traveled for vacation and requested the kind of physician's letter described in your post. The nurse told me that the doctor would not write the letter because it was not necessary with the medication being in the pharmacy labeled bottle, he told her that he frequently traveled internationally without any problems.

Situations like this often arise where law enforcement/ regulators, politicians and physicians disagree on what should be required. Said law enforcement might cite an article such as yours as proof getting a letter is no big deal and a reasonable to expect for everyone to have a letter. Law makers often leave huge gaps between reality, their desired outcome and what they put in the law. The physicians either think the request is a superfluous, waste of time on their already overloaded schedule or don't want encourage unnecessary over documentation to satisfy the wiles of over zealous police.

For those of us in rural areas, there may not be many psychiatrists to pick from to begin with and then finding one that accepts our insurance narrows that down to a handful within a couple hours of driving distance; add in months long wait time for appointments plus offices not taking new patients and you are left with a handful of choices unless you can pay the full cash price out of pocket and/or can take a day trip to see them.

It would be helpful to add the story that some doctors may not want to write that kind of letter and many people don't have the luxury of just going to another doctor when they aren't happy with their current one. We live in a midsize city in a rural part of the Midwest, most physicians here work for one of the two regional health monopolies and the rest that still accept new patients can have year long wait lists. Going to a different doctor here usually means a day off work for a 100+ mile drive.

[Rcarusomd]

I am a pediatrician and i have preteens and teens travelling by plane alone to another parent. How does an unaccompanied minor travel in the US with their stimulants safely?

[ADHD_DAD]

Thank you Karen for your post. We contacted the embassies of UK, France, Italy amd Spain. All respnded but UK. For France and Italy, the request was that the meds be in their original labelled prescription bottles and be accompanied by doctor's letter of necessity (which, for us, was easy to obtain). Spain required a special certificate but when we applied for it, they clarified that it was required for methylphenidate for quantities abive 2 grams, which we were not bringing. So, we got ahead of it but then were asked nothing by immigration upon arrival except to see passports. The meds were not even mentioned. Better safe than sorry, though.