Having chest pains after taking Adderall with potentiator

[UmmaGumma]

Swim has been on Adderall for 3 years now for treatment-resistant depression. She mainly took it only when she needed it, such as studying for test, running a lot of errands, etc. However, back in the summer, she began binging on Adderall on the weekends for recreational purposes (about 120-180 mgs for an all-nighter). At first, the increase in dosage on the weekends caused no side effects except the inability to sleep.

After reading the forums on the Internet, Swim discovered she could potentiate the effects of Adderall with acid-reducing substances. Swim already takes Protonix for GERD but not every day in order to conserve the prescription. Therefore, when she experiences breakthrough acid reflux, she takes OTC cimetidine (Tagamet) for immediate relief until the Protonix begans working again. Swim then began taking cimetidine on her Adderall weekends to potentiate the effects. It was then that she began having chest pains and shortness of breath.

Does anyone know if combining cimetidine with Adderall the reason for the chest pains and shortness of breath? I do know that cimetidine is notorious for causing drug interactions. Swim did go to the emergency room one night because of the chest pains and was hooked up to an EKG. Although her blood pressure was a little high, her heart rate was perfectly normal and the EKG showed no abnormalities. Even her blood work came out fine.

The next day after Swim starts coming down off the effects of Adderall is when she starts experiencing the chest pains and shortness of breath---not while she's on the Adderall. Swim also becomes very weak and faint feeling and cannot do anything strenous. Even light housework makes her want to faint. But after several days of sleeping and recovering from the Adderall weekend, Swim is back to normal with no chest pains or shortness of breath and is no longer weak or faint and able to do physical activities with no problems.

Should Swim be very concerned about heart problems even though her tests shows her heart is fine? She has no pre-existing heart condition, either. I know some people who complained about chest pains after taking very little doses. Could it be the spike in blood pressure causing the problems? Swim has noticed that taking Zanaflex (a muscle relaxer) helps to alleviate the chest pains and shortness of breath. And Zanaflex causes hypotension, meaning it lowers the blood pressure.

Sorry this post is so long. I would like to hear feedback from others who've had similar experiences or know some vital info. Also, Swim is 39 years old and not as resilient as she used to be.

[carousel]

its acid reflux due to u taking anti acid medicine. its too much for ur stomach to handle. it will go away once ur body gets use to it. if u smoke it makes it a lot worse. your blood pressure is high from the drugs.

[realitybias]

Woah woah woah now. That is not acid reflux. Take it from someone who has had acid reflux for a long, long time, taking an antacid will not cause acid reflux (rather, it prevents it). Swiy need a long talk with a good doctor who tells swiy exactly what is wrong with you, it could be heart related, or it could be stress related. Zanaflex is also an anti-anxiety, I believe, so it could indeed be anxiety.

However, at the high doses you are pointing out, it almost certainly is heart related. Let SWIYs doctor know about the (mis)use of the drug, he wont turn swiy in.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good advice, but presented in a poor fashion. Make assumptions, but do not discredit perfectly sound reasoning. If som...

[UmmaGumma]

Yeah, at first I thought it may have just been acid reflux or indigestion but with the shortness of breath, I became worried it was something more. I think Swim's going to give up the weekend binges and take only as needed in prescribed dose. If any more problems arise, Swim will talk to the doc. Thanks for the response!

[Paracelsus]

Chest pains can happen from amphetamines. Potentiating amphetamines (by cimetidine or any other means) increases one's likelihood to experience this, obviously. A doctor should take care of this.

[f13nd]

I had a similar experience with my script. I took tagamet instead of Tums as a potentiator, and wasn't able to figure out why but I had a horrible throbbing headache in the back of my head, and pains in my chest. maybe tagamet somehow potentiates the PNS causing uncomfortable side effects. or that damned levoamp..

[disturbedfuel15]

SWIM also recently went to the emergency room because of heart concerns. It all started at about 1:00 at work (2.5 hours after doseage of prescribed adderall XR 2x25mg). SWIM initially felt nervous because his heart rate seemed to be racing out of control and he felt numbness coming and going in different parts of his body (fingers, left thigh, on top of head, etc). SWIM also noticed that he was sweating profusely and his hands were cold and clammy.

At that point, it all went downhill. SWIM tried to withstand these feelings, but he just couldn't stop thinking about having a serious heart problem or something related, which made his symptoms worse. After an hour and a half at work, SWIM decided that his symptoms were getting much worse than before, and he quickly had someone drive him to the emergency room.
Once there, the doctors hooked SWIM up to some oxygen, did an EKG, checked his heart rate, and took his blood pressure. SWIM was extremely surprised to find out that his heart rate was only about 105, and everything on the EKG turned out fine. The only thing of concern was his blood pressure which was 160/94. The nurses told me to just relax and do some deep breathing, and "what do ya know?" SWIM's heart rate went all the way down to 82bpm, and his blood pressure dropped to 140/88.

The doctors then proceeded to take SWIM to two other rooms to do a CAT-scan of his brain and an X-ray of his chest. They also drew a few vials of blood to do some tests with those too. Everything ended up coming back fine. The doctor came back in and told SWIM, "so far, so good," but he wanted to perform one final test.... THE TEST FROM HELL.

Has anyone ever heard of an ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS TEST? SWIM prays that none of you SWIMmers ever have to go through this because it is horrendous pain. The nurse came in to tell me that she was going to have to check my oxygen levels from one of my radial arteries in my arm, and to do so, she would have to stick a needle into it and draw blood. I won't continue on to say how excruchaiting the pain was, but in the end, it took them three tries from three different people stabbing around inside SWIM's wrist, scraping SWIM's artery several times . The ONLY good side to that story is that when they were done, they gave SWIM some IV morphine To be honest, it still wasn't worth it though.

Anyway, back on topic. All the tests came back fine, but the doctor said due to SWIM's history of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (without being prescribed medications for it), the amphetamines (adderall) made his anxiety worsen to the max. He ended up giving SWIM a script for 15 lorazepam (Ativan) 1mg and said that when SWIM feels he is having another anxiety attack, take one and he will feel a lot better. The doctor advised SWIM to either discontinue amphetamine medication (which SWIM really doesn't want to do; it helps him so, so much in life), OR call SWIM's neurologist/psychiatrist before his lorazepam runs out to see if they will prescribe him lorazepam (or something similar for future anxiety attacks).

Hope this helps calm many SWIMers down about abnormal heart rate/pains/blood pressure, or whatever gives them the feeling like they're going to have a heart attack/stroke. But ALWAYS REMEMBER, SWIM went to the doctor and found out that he was FINE, it was just an anxiety attack. This is not to say that OTHER SWIMmers may have a serious problem. ALWAYS, ALWAYS get a second opinion from a doctor before assuming it's just anxiety.

Good luck SWIMmers,
and have a fun time SWIMming

[GForce]

I get heart palpitations sometimes when I take my prescription. Nothing serious according to my doc. I just notice my heart beating sometimes and that feels kind of awkward and tends to speed it up and make my chest feel heavy.

[Hollow Hippie]

If SWIM is really low on dosages he'll potentiate low doses with zoloft (cyp2d6 inhibitor) and them tasty tum chewables. Obviously SWIM has to avoid DXM and other things because of the zoloft, but you don't really run risk of SS cause amphetamine isn't too strong in the seritonin department. But yeah SWIY will def. get worse side effects potentiating, for SWIM tums makes his stomach hurt sometimes and heart rate is much more noticable. And obviously SWIM does not advise anyone to take an SSRI to potentiate blood levels of amp, SWIM is just desperate sometimes.