As of late 2025, the U.S. and other high‑income countries do not have a clearly recognized, separate addiction or overdose epidemic attributable specifically to overprescription of ADHD‑type psychostimulants to children and adolescents on a scale comparable to the opioid crisis.

Available data show that stimulant‑involved overdose deaths have risen sharply since about 2011, but these deaths are dominated by illicit methamphetamine and cocaine; the CDC category “psychostimulants with abuse potential” (which includes methamphetamine, amphetamine, and methylphenidate) has increased to about 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023, with analyses emphasizing methamphetamine as the primary driver rather than prescribed ADHD medications. (cdc.gov) Research describing the “fourth wave” of the overdose crisis similarly characterizes the problem as fentanyl plus illicit stimulants, framing it as an evolution of the opioid crisis rather than a new, distinct prescription‑stimulant epidemic. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

CDC guidance notes that prescription stimulants (e.g., Adderall, methylphenidate) can be misused—about 3.9 million Americans aged 12+ reported misuse in 2023—but also states that these drugs "do not tend to cause overdose," underscoring that their direct role in fatal overdoses is limited compared with opioids and illicit stimulants. (cdc.gov) At the same time, overdose mortality overall—though still very high—has recently started to decline from its 2022 peak, and remains predominantly driven by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. (en.wikipedia.org)

Prescription rates for ADHD medications have increased markedly (for example, in England, about 18% year‑on‑year since the pandemic), prompting concern about possible overdiagnosis and overprescribing, but recent reviews still judge the benefit–risk balance of these drugs to be generally favorable when properly monitored, not evidence of an unfolding catastrophe on the order of the opioid epidemic. (theguardian.com)

Because (1) no large‑scale, clearly attributable ADHD‑medication‑driven addiction/overdose crisis comparable in scope to the opioid epidemic has yet emerged, but (2) the prediction was about future consequences without a defined time horizon and stimulant‑related harms are evolving, the claim cannot be decisively labeled right or wrong at this point. It is therefore best classified as inconclusive (too early to tell), with current evidence leaning against the idea that such a crisis has already materialized.