“A
guest at the Century
Plaza wants his Adderall
refilled. Can you go?” asked someone from the office of a local concierge
doctor.
“I
can go, but I don’t do Adderall,” I said.
“No
problem.” She would find another doctor. Prescription refills are easy house
calls.
You’ve heard
of childhood attention-deficit disorder. Recently psychiatrists have
discovered that it also affects adults. Treatment is the same. That includes
drugs related to amphetamines; the most popular for adults is Adderall. As a
hotel doctor my only experience with attention-deficit disorder comes from
guests who need more Adderall.
None sounded
like drug-seekers. All were happy to pay my fee for a visit during which I
would check them out. Since there is no way that I can examine a guest and determine
if he or she suffers adult attention-deficit disorder, I told them I’d have to
speak to his or her doctor. None ever called.
It’s been
decades since I made a similar decision on narcotics. Guests occasionally
forget their heart pills, but soon after becoming a hotel doctor, I grew
puzzled at how many needed more Vicodin or Oxycontin. Some sounded suspicious
from the start, but many were clearly in great pain. Their distress tore at my
heart, and they often produced a sheaf of X-rays and letters from a doctor. With
no reliable way to tell the fakes from the genuine, I gave up on narcotics.
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