Seeing a psychiatrist via telehealth became easier from January 2022. That’s when Medicare-reimbursed telepsychiatry arrangements became permanent.

The idea was for these video and phone consultations to provide more flexible and sooner appointment times, without needing to travel.

But our new analysis shows what happened next.

We show how telepsychiatry became dominated by consultations for stimulant prescriptions since 2022. These were mostly for people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Telepsychiatry for ADHD specifically did increase access for people living in rural and remote areas. But it was more likely to be provided by psychiatrists living in more affluent major towns and cities.

These types of ADHD telepsychiatry appointments are also associated with greater out-of-pocket costs than the equivalent face-to-face appointments.

A three-fold jump in ADHD scripts

We examined nearly 4 million Medicare Benefits Schedule records of psychiatric consultations between 2017 and 2023. We also looked at the relevant Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule prescription records arising from these consults.

Before COVID, our study showed less than one in 20 psychiatry consultations were linked to an ADHD prescription, and less than one in 50 were conducted by video.

By 2022, the number........

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