Patients with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and psychiatrists are once again calling on the government to revert to branded medication as the current treatment is having a detrimental effect on some children and adults.
Two years ago, patients who reacted poorly to a change in ADHD treatment – from a branded medication to a generic one – were investigated by an inquiry after mental health professionals and parents of children raised the alarm that some were regressing.
The side effects were having an impact on sleeping patters, appetite, aggression and anxiety among others, and the switchover had even seen a person losing their job within three months, Times of Malta has been told.
The association of psychiatrists has described Mount Carmel Hospital as not fit for purpose and called for a temporary mental health hospital until the promised new one is built next to Mater Dei.
Concern about the state of the Attard hospital has made headlines over recent years and most of its ceilings were condemned by architects in 2019.
The spotlight was back on the hospital this week when a 20-year-old Dutch woman wrote of her eight-day experience at the facility.
“It was hell,” Belle de Jong, who was an inpatient last February, said. In a blogpost at sidestreetmalta.com, she spoke of communal showering reminiscent of German concentration camps, dirty and depressing common areas, a chaotic distribution of medication, lack of fresh air and being stripped naked for a drug check.