Kind Patches almost certainly aren’t the answer to ADHD focus issues

One of the criticisms frequently levelled at supplements is that they produce expensive urine. If you take a pill supplementing something your body really doesn’t need, it will often be broken down through digestion, and filtered out of the body through the urine. It’s a valid criticism, but one that Kind Patches would like to avoid. They claim

unlike oral supplements, they deliver ingredients straight into your bloodstream, bypassing digestion for potentially better absorption and reduced stomach upset.

I first came across Kind Patches on Instagram – the ad had a photo of a person’s arm wearing a purple round sticker on her wrist, alongside the promise that their product would improve focus, specifically for those with ADHD. I have pathological focus issues, most likely because as a diagnosed autistic woman, I’m more likely to also have ADHD . If I could switch on my hyper-focus by wearing a sticker on my wrist, I would be very much all for it.

If you don’t struggle with focus, it will always be difficult to understand what lacking focus really means. It can be absolutely debilitating. Lack of focus can make it hard to do even basic tasks like brushing your teeth or washing your hair. It can make it hard to maintain friendships, because you get distracted during conversations and forget important dates and commitments. It can make maintaining a job difficult, as you miss important deadlines or meetings. It even makes having hobbies hard as you bounce from hobby to hobby, never able to focus on one thing at a time. Of course, a lack of focus isn’t the only focus related thing that neurodivergent people struggle with – the other side of the coin is hyperfocus.

Hyperfocus can be an absolute joy – we can suddenly complete three complicated projects consecutively and meet those deadlines we were certain were unmeetable. And we can get a lot of pleasure from spending a few hours in uninterrupted focus on our hobbies and interests. My ability to hyperfocus is almost certainly part of why I am incredibly productive. But there are downsides too – hyperfocus can be all consuming. When you resurface from a hyperfocus spell you can realise you haven’t eaten all day, and you now have a dehydration headache, and bladder pain because you forgot to pee. And if you’re hyper focusing on the ‘wrong’ thing, it can contribute to judgement from others as you inadvertently deprioritise high priority things because you got trapped in hyper focus on a lower priority task.

For me, the biggest challenge when it comes to hyperfocus is that I can’t will myself into it. I can’t always switch it on when I need it. It comes to me when I’m not looking, and it can disappear as quickly as it arrived. If I could take a pill or wear a sticker that turned on my focus, I would pay the person who made it a lot of money. A lot of neurodivergent people would. To be able to take away the shame that comes with focus difficulties. To be able to take away the judgements people make of us. That would be worth a lot to very many neurodivergent people.

All of which makes the claims from Kind Patches so deserving of skeptical scrutiny. According to their website:

the Focus Patches deliver a steady release of Lion’s Mane Mushroom, essential minerals, and adaptogenic herbs like ginseng to enhance concentration, mental clarity, and cognitive performance. Designed to sharpen your mind while promoting calm and sustained focus, these patches help you stay productive and clear-headed throughout the day.

There is something available that is proven to help with ADHD lack of focus – it’s not available online, or over the counter, and it can be hard to get even with a prescription: stimulant medications. I find it hard to believe that Lion’s Mane Mushroom and ginseng are going to do the trick, but if they did, given they are ingredients that have been around for a long time, we would have heard more about it by now.

Despite the contents of the ad that first drew my attention, the web page for the Focus Patches is notably lacking any mention of ADHD. What is present on the site is a “caution” disclaimer, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.”

This is interesting, because the Food and Drug Administration are an American organisation, while Kind Patches explain in their FAQ section that:

We are a UK-based company, and our products are shipped from the UK and US. Kind Patches operates under the umbrella of KINDPATCHES LTD, our London-based company. Additionally, our logistics center is located in Birmingham and in Seattle and our offices are located in London, Marbella, Stockholm and Hong Kong.

Of course the focus patches aren’t the only patches they sell. They also have “Dream Patches” with valerian root to “help you drift off more easily and enhance sleep quality”; “Energy Patches – Extra Strong” with B12, caffeine and red ginseng to “help you stay focused and revitalized throughout the day”; “Period Patches” with chamomile, camphor and eucalyptus oil to “target menstrual discomfort and support overall reproductive health”; “Menopause Patches” with black cohosh, curcumin and dong quai root, which they say is “to help manage common menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, and fatigue, providing you with consistent relief and support throughout the day”; “Wake up Patches” which, similar to the energy patches, contain caffeine and B12; and “Stress Down Patches”, which, similar to the menopause patches, contain B12, black cohosh root and curcumin to “soothe your mind and promote relaxation”.

In fact, if we compare the menopause patch ingredients list to the Stress Down patch ingredients, the two products appear to be identical:

Also available in the range are their “Boost Patches”, “Glow Skin Patches”, “Defence Patches”, “Recover Patches”, and “Anti-Motion Sickness Patches”. Each of these patches cost £12 for a month’s supply.

There are also a selection of patches that don’t fit this model – lip masks and under-eye masks, mosquito repellent patches that can be stuck to your clothes, blackhead removal patches, and a UV patch which changes colour when exposed to UV light.

The majority of patches from Kind Patches are transdermal patches. They explain:

Our patches have clinically tested ingredients that are blended into a gentle adhesive layer, then coated onto our discreet and powerful patches.

Did you know that our skin has the ability to absorb certain vitamins and minerals directly? When these nutrients have a molecular weight of 500 Daltons or less, our skin can pick it up. This means we can get the same benefits from a smaller dose, just like we would from taking capsules or gummies.

It is true that we can absorb some compounds directly through the skin. It’s also true that we do use this in medicine to deliver medications that benefit from a steady, continuous delivery. Transdermal patches have been around since the 1970s, the first of which contained a medication to prevent motion sickness, and now we have transdermal patches for nicotine delivery in smoking cessation protocols, opioid medications for people with chronic pain, hormone replacement therapy or contraceptives, and medication for Alzheimer’s disease and even ADHD.

However, there are some downsides to transdermal patches. The skin is designed to be a barrier, so you have to be quite selective of what you use in a patch, or you need to modify the patch somehow. These days we have microneedle patches which have small needles on the surface. These penetrate the skin to make it easier for the medication to cross the barrier.

The Kind Patches don’t claim to be microneedle patches. They claim to have a biodegradable outer layer, then an adhesive layer, then the vitamin and nutrient layer – which consists of things like Lion’s Mane Mushroom. I don’t think they’re implying that Lion’s Mane Mushroom can cross the skin barrier; they may well be implying that an active ingredient inside the mushroom does cross the skin barrier, but they don’t tell us what they think that is.

They do say that only things smaller than 500 Daltons can cross the skin. Yet, vitamin B12, one of the vitamins they have in many of their patches, is over 1300 Daltons. Vitamin D, is, at least, much smaller – around 416 Daltons. Indeed, many of the vitamins used by Kind Patches should be small enough to be administered transdermally. But does that mean these patches work for those ingredients?

It depends on the definition of “working” here. We have two separate questions: can the patches get the vitamins into the body, and do they do what they say they do?

I think it’s highly unlikely these patches do what they say they do – we don’t have good evidence that vitamins and supplements help with period pains or improving the skin, nor can they improve the immune system or reduce hangover symptoms in most people. If you are experiencing skin or immune issues because of vitamin deficiency, supplementation might help, but this should be something you identify and discuss with your doctor.

While it’s technically possible that vitamin transdermal patches allow vitamins to get into your body, many of the active ingredients here aren’t clear: chamomile isn’t crossing the skin barrier, but is there an active ingredient in the chamomile that could? If so, Kind Patches don’t tell us. Even with the vitamins that are small enough to make it through – it’s technically possible for us to absorb them, but the data just isn’t there to support it. Speaking to Laura Onstot for Well + Good website, Fatima Stanford a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee said,

The thing with transdermal patches is that we just don’t have the same amount of data in terms of studies [being] done on them as compared with oral supplementation.

The same article talked about a study conducted by a surgeon who compared tablet versus patch use in post-operative patients and found that there was a higher likelihood of vitamin D deficiency in those using patches compared to those using tablets. This wasn’t a randomised controlled trial, it was a retrospective analysis, so those patients might be using patches due to some kind of incompatibility with tablets, which might also influence their vitamin levels. But that’s part of the problem – there’s a lack of RCTs looking at this topic.

The jury is still out on whether vitamin patches are a reasonable way to supplement vitamins, and I stand by my usual position that, with the exception of vitamin D for certain people or in certain parts of the world and at certain times of the year, vitamin supplementation is only useful if you are medically deficient.

These patches are not likely to help with sleep or menopause symptoms or period pains or immune health or hangovers and are, at best a waste of time and money. But the adhesive might cause skin irritation and, of course, even allergic reactions for some people.