Telehealth startup Cerebral shared millions of patients’ data with advertisers
Cerebral became famous for selling Adderall and Xanax prescriptions as a subscription service. They advertised on social media sites like TikTok. The “patients” were rushed through the minimal telehealth screenings that they could get away with before writing the prescription, as providers were incentivized to do as many calls per hour as they could.<p>Worse, whistleblowers have revealed that the company was encouraging their providers to write more Schedule II prescriptions (high addictive potential) and avoid the non-addictive alternatives because they determined they the Schedule II patients had a higher retention rate: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;5&#x2F;9&#x2F;23063356&#x2F;cerebral-telehealth-prescriptions-investigation-adhd-adderall-doj-dea" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2022&#x2F;5&#x2F;9&#x2F;23063356&#x2F;cerebral-teleheal...</a><p>Multiple major pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions from Cerebral because it was such a blatant internet prescription mill. I was a mentor in a remote mentoring program at a time and it was stunning to see the Slack side conversations where college students were bragging about how easily they were getting high-dose Adderall prescriptions from the company after consultations measured in a couple minutes. One person shared a link to a script people were using that would trigger the providers to increase their dose on every visit, including lying about certain factors to help overcome provider concerns about going into high doses. One student had reached 60mg of Adderall per day (the maximum dose, far above common dosing) and was <i>clearly</i> overstimulated, unwell, and, frankly, hooked on their new stimulant source.<p>Terrible company. It’s going to leave a mark on the availability of ADHD treatment for years to come, I’m afraid.