The End of Adderall XR?

[AlienLinux]

Swim went to see his doctor today and his doctor prescribed him Adderall XR.
Swim's doctor also mentioned a medication that Shire is currently trying to switch all Adderall XR users to called Vyvanse.
Swim doesn't remember everything but he'll say as much as he can.
Vyvanse is pretty much impossible to abuse.
Let's say someone steals it or gets it on the street.
If they break it open to snort it, it is the equivalent of one bead inside an Adderall XR pill. It can only be taken orally.
Rather than going over 12 hours and reaching a peak within that time and slowly going down, it goes 12 hours and stays at the same level until the 12 hours are up.
Eventually Adderall XR will be pushed down to a generic pill, and Vyvanse will replace it. The same thing happened with plain Adderall. When that time comes you can still get it, but it will be generic.

[joevince]

Hey, I have been in recovery for 1 year now. i used to snort meth .
My doctors have diognosed me with ADD. Now there trying to put me on VyVanse? I really need others Opions on this matter ?
I dont want to take it ,then end up dependent on it ! , Even after a year sober ,i have such a problem with Extreme Fatigue,and im not able to Focus everyday. Ive been takin Provigil ,but that only works for an hour or so ?

Please Give me some feedback ?

Thanks

[bynarie]

Hey man... What kind of recovery are you doing? 12 step programs? I was once in recovery but gave it up... But my honest opinion is ask yourself what do you value more... Sobriety or drugs? That will answer your question. If you're serious about sobriety then most likely you will not want to fuck that medication. No matter what sobriety has to come first. You will be wasting a year of good sobriety if you end up relapsing all because of some stupid medication. Regardless or not if you truely need the medication, ask yourself.. Is it worth risking my life(sobriety) just to be more focused and concentrated? The answer is obviously no. Hope your doing good with yourself... God bless.. Msg me back if you wanna talk or anything sometime! Later

[staples]

Vyvanse is great, the consensus seems to be that it provides a much smoother effect than adderall.

Adderall XR is dead, you say? Absolutely not. Without a reason to switch a patient to vyvanse from Adderall XR when they had been stable on Adderall XR for some time would just be irresponsible.

Vyvanse is not abusable, you say? Theoretically, it can be forced through hydrolysis outside the body to obtain just the dextroamphetamine...

[GForce]

Vyvanse does contain dextroamphetamine in it (a component of Adderall) but includes an amino acid, lysine, that causes it to act longer. In Vyvanse's own studies they concluded that 150mg gives euphoria equivalent to 40mg of dextroamphetamine on its own. So Vyvanse is definitely less pontent from a euphoric standpoint, but in treating ADHD I don't know if it is more effective or less than Adderall XR. Since the drug is so new, there really aren't enough trials and observational studies out there to say one is better than another. If you are really concerned about the potency then you need to talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor wants to switch you I would recommend agreeing to at least try it provided your Adderall XR gets refilled as well in the event that Vyvanse isn't working for you. I feel that is a fair compromise between doctor and patient considering the patient doesn't want their life disrupted and has the right to make decisions regarding their treatment. In fact, the reason I left my psychiatrist of two years and went to see one at my University's health service was because he refused to make such a compromise. He wanted to completely change my medication for anxiety and continue trying new medications until he found another one that worked. I simply thought that was ridiculous because I'm very busy at school and that would have disrupted so many aspects of my life.

[blackdb1]

Swims not trying to thread jack but his suboxone dr. prescribes him 12mg sub a day, 2mg klonazepam a day and swim and doc have talked about maybe trying something for the adhd this month as it is only his third visit and doc wanted to handle the anxiety issue which swim did also, want to deal with the anxiety first.

Swim was diagnosed with SAD, GAD, panic disoreder, and ADHD. He notices he has LITTLE TO NO MOTIVATION!!! If he is working, in a conversation, etc. swims mind will wander off the main subject that he should be thinking about. An example would be like when he is working on his car trying to think hard and assemble his engine he starts thinking about debts, girls, whatever. He finds it really hard to stay on one subject and one main focused goal!

Swims sub dr has vyvanse samples in his office and he is wondering if this is something being RX'ed for ADD/ADHD etc/ or is it for recovering amphetamine addicts like suboxone is for opiates? Maybe both? Swim wants to know what swiyou guys think would be swims best choice between Adderall, Dexedrine, and vyvanse???

Swim knows it is up to the dr. but swims doc is pretty cool and down to earth as long as you aren't just trying to score a fix! He deals with addicits everyday and swim is sure he could spot an addict form a half of a mile... haha Maybe??? But like swim said what does swiyou guys think swim best option would be as swims doc will most likely be putting swim on something this month or next month?

Oh uea swim wondered 1 other thing is it common for a dr. to prescribe benzos and amphetamine together??? Thanks in advance for any answers!!! Swim is on 30mg adderall right now and is focused very well! You can probably telll swim is stimulated nicely! -bdb1-

[GForce]

SWIY just has to try each drug with his doctor until he finds one that works. Vyvanse is Shire's attempt at keeping the insurance companies and consumers paying a premium for their soon-to-expire XR patent, which would explain their push for XR consumers to make the switch. It really comes down to what works best, and SWIY can only find out by trying different things out. If what he's taking isn't working right now, he should tell his doctor, and they should try something else.

[disturbedfuel15]

^^^^^^^ I couldn't agree more.

SWIM was first put on lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) for his ADHD, and it worked great. It was so smooth and had absolutely no negative side-effects such as a steep comedown or episodes of anxiety. He loved the way Vyvanse made him feel; it completely changed his life for the better, as SWIM had asked his previous doctor for seven years to put him on an ADHD medication. He had SWIM fill out multiple surveys and even spoke with SWIM's parents (when he was a minor). About a year ago he finally diagnosed swim with ADHD, but absolutely refused to provide him

with anything other than Strattera (useless).
SWIM ended up switching doctors, which referred him to a psychiatrist, who then referred him to a psychologist/neurologist. The neurologist told SWIM it was obvious that he had ADHD. She was very angry that his previous physician would not try anything but Strattera, because she knew right away and without a doubt that SWIM has had ADHD for a long time. She also diagnosed him with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and said that she believes he also has a learning disability. SWIM wants so bad to succeed throughout his college career, but has found it so extremely difficult because of this disability. She said not to worry, that she would communicate with his attending college to make sure that they will have him covered under Section 504 (google it if you're curious).

Anyway, he walked out of the neurologist's office with a script for Vyvanse once in the morning, and it worked wonders, as he mentioned earlier. His parents, friends, fiancee, and even co-workers told him that he seemed much more focused, and he was doing a much better job (so much as to give clause for his boss to give him a very generous raise). Within about two weeks, SWIM was not feeling his symptoms were being adequately treated due to the natural development of a tolerance. SWIM called the neurologist and she said that this happens to almost everyone, and he could try doubling his morning dose. So now he was taking two 50mg Vyvanse capsules, and that made him feel fine again.

Soon enough, SWIM ran out of the capsules (which was NOT because of abuse), so his neurologist wrote him another script for a larger quantity of Vyvanse, and he immediately went to his pharmacy to get it filled. Now the bad news... The pharmacist said that my insurance (Blue "Crap" Network) would not cover the Vyvanse and it would be some ungodly expensive cost to SWIM to get them (SWIM only got it filled the first time because he attained a coupon for a free one month trial). He called his neurologist back and she faxed over a script for Adderall XR (two 25mg taken together in the morning. SWIM felt "okay," but the side-effects were becoming more pronounced with time (which his neuro told him would do the complete opposite with time; that is, his body would get used to the new medication). He experienced side-effects such as Tachycardia, palpitations, difficulty breathing, insomnia on many nights, erectile dysfunction, anger/irritability toward nightfall due to a worse "crash," and most importantly he was getting TERRIBLE anxiety attacks that were disrupting his entire way of living (these happened almost every night at work; not good. He talked to my neurologist about this and she faxed a script for Deseryl (Trazadone 50mg) taken at night to help SWIM sleep (which did help).

He ended up in the emergency room because he thought he was going to have a heart-attack. His heart rate was 144bpm, blood pressure 180/125. He was given I.V. lorazepam, and that made him feel much, much better. The ER doc then had him get an X-ray of his chest, a cat-scan of his brain, an EKG for his heart, and finally the "funnest" one of all, a Arterial Blood Gas test (ABG). This involved three different nurses digging around inside my wrist, attempting to get the needle into my artery. The first two
simply scraped around, poking various things inside his wrist (such as his bone), and intermittently scraping his artery (simply put, they failed at getting the needle into my artery) which he can only describe as excruciating pain. The third, and final (thank god) nurse tried it in my opposite wrist, in which she successfully drew blood from his artery. At this point, he was experiencing a TREMENDOUS amount of pain at the needle site, so they gave him some I.V. morphine.

The doctor came back with the test results and his conclusion. He told SWIM everything came back normal, and that he believed SWIM simply had an extreme anxiety-induced panic attack from the new medication (Adderall). He dismissed SWIM with a script for 15 Ativan (lorazepam 1mg), which would be enough to last him until he could see his neurologist again. Note that SWIM was still experiencing all of his side-effects (besides insomnia, which happened only one night when he ran out of lorazepam the night before seeing his neurologist because of another anxiety-attack... Now on to the present.

SWIM's neurologist decided to transfer him to a different amphetamine, but couldn't decide which one would be best for him. She new that Vyvanse worked great, but his insurance made it out of the question. SWIM told her that he had been doing some research and truly felt the negative side-effects of Adderall were from the physiological effects of the Levoamphetamine. She agreed that this could be the case, and tried thinking about a different amphetamine with only Dextroamphetamine as the active ingredient. SWIM pointed out that his research led him to Dexedrine, which was exactly that; only Dextroamphetamine. She laughed due to her inability to think of this sooner. She decided to give the spansules a try. She prescribed him two 15mg and instructed him to take one around 9:00-10:00 and another just before noon (to avoid potential insomnia). She also prescribed him a month's supply (60) of clonezepam (Klonopin) 1mg taken one to two times daily, as needed for anxiety or insomnia.

SWIM felt great again, and functioned at 100 percent, with absolutely no side-effects, just like the Vyvanse did for him. The only problem is that SWIM does have a tolerance to amphetamines, and feels his 30mg extended-release dose is not enough now (two weeks later). He is going to ask his neurologist if he can be prescribed one more 15mg spansule in order to overcome his tolerance. SWIM doesn't believe 45mg Dextroamphetamine is asking of too much, and will have a talk with his neurologist as soon as their office opens again, the 23rd. Other than that, SWIM feels Dexedrine is FAR SUPERIOR in controlling his ADHD symptoms than the Adderall was. No physiological (respiratory, circulatory, vascular, etc) side-effects. Simply put, his mind is now completely focused, without the increased stress on his body. That's where SWIM is at present, and will continue taking Dexedrine for as long as needed.

SWIM's advice to anyone out there experiencing negative peripheral side-effects is to give a medication with only Dextroamphetamine active. It has all the positive effects on the brain, without speeding up the circulatory or respiratory systems. Remember though, everyone's body is different and medications may affect others differently than it has affected SWIM. Be completely open with your prescriber, and tell them exactly what's going on with your body and how you feel. As in SWIM's case, it took many failed attempts to finally find the right medication that his body agreed with; the same may happen to you.

Hope this helped
Take care, SWIMmers

[GForce]

At the end of the day it boils down to what works best to treat your symptoms. It may be Vyvanse, it might be a medication not even based on amphetamines. If there weren't people who got benefits from the various medications out there they wouldn't continue to exist, so obviously some people are using them effectively. I wouldn't blame Shire for reacting to a trough in the business cycle, but their deception by not explaining why Vyvanse is supposedly superior to Adderall XR is a bit of shady business practices. That's why you need a psychiatrist who is willing to work with you to find the medication that works for you, not the ones that the medical journals say are selling best or even best rated.

[sti11man]

i wouldent say adderal xr is dead my doc tells me he perscribes it to many of his patients, however made the point of adderall's side affects........that it causes erectile disfuntion......i have noticsed that when im off my adderall for more than 3-5 days that thing between mah legs does increase in size while flacd and erect.

also now that i have read that testamonial i want to give vyvanse a try.