Side effects - Aderall And Depression/Mood Swings

[Poster1]

((Skip to the bottom for concluded bit ))

Hello all, Swim is new to the board but has browsed through quite a few Aderall related threads. Swim has seen a few people here and there mentioning mood swings and or depression as a side effect, but after using the search feature haven't managed to find any threads focused on that subject alone.

Swim was prescribed to Aderall XR for...3 months I believe, starting off small from 10mg every morning and eventually to 30mg every morning. For the first week or two, Swim felt all of the positive effects of the drug; increased energy, concentration, clear mind/thought, more sociable, etc.

Every now and then when Swim would become upset over the smallest incidents, or irritated at other people. Sometimes he would blame people for things that were his own fault. Swim would of course talk to them after the negative effects had worn off and continue on with his life.

As Swim continued to take the 30mg daily tough, it seemed the positive effects were less noticeable, and the depression and mood swings would get progressively worse. He got his work and responsibilities taken care of fine, but moved through them daily like a zombie, not "focused"; but more like mindlessly repeating the motions it felt like.

Swim decided the wonderful improvements in his work ethic were not worth losing his friends and relationships over, as at this point there seemed to be little point in socializing. He tried to stop taking the drug but would feel sick unless he had Aderall in his body, so he started taking 50mg Vyvanse(( equal to 20-25mg Aderall XR apparently)) daily and felt like the mood swings were less common; and that's where he is today.
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"CONCLUDED BIT"

-Took 30mg Aderall XR daily and experienced bad mood swings/depression
-Moved to 50mg Vyvanse and didn't experience them as much

So Swim's question to anyone else with experiences similar to this is: How bad are your mood swings, and how do you deal with them?

If anyone has any tips of maybe weening off of them, those would be appreciated... As I definitely do have some sort of addiction to them at this point lol.

[mykeamine]

swiy post coincides very closely with swim.

swim understand that every person reacts/feels the positives and negative of amphetamine differently. swim would say that there is no majority over adderall lovers and methylphenidate lovers.

if the negative begin to outweigh the positives why doesn't swiy get switched to ritalin or the like? swit might be a methylphenidate kinda person.

[dark12]

A 25 mg Vyvanse capsule is molecularly equivalent to a 10 mg Dexedrine Spansule (both the aforementioned pharmaceuticals are about 7.425 mg dextroamphetamine)

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyvanse

Adderall is approximately 65% dextroamphetamine by weight because it consists of a racemic mixture of dextro and levo isomers. Also because the salts used in Adderall are heavier due to them being sugar based rather than simply a sulfate like Dexedrine. This would put the dextroamphetamine content of your 30mg Adderall just under 20mg compared to about 15mg in your 50mg Vyvanse which alone could be one of the reasons your body tolerates it better.

Another reason could be the lack of the levo isomer in Vyvanse which is said to be responsible for the peripheral stimulation of Adderall. The levo isomer is also known to cause more anxiety and increased heartrate compared to the dextro isomer.

Also, since Vyvanse is a "pro-drug" it must first pass through the GI tract to be metabolized to dextroamphetamine. This is to reduce the ease of abuse that some people take advantage of with Adderall by crushing and then consuming the beads intranasally. This probably slows the rate at which dextroamphetamine enters the bloodstream causing a more gradual and less pronounced effect.

If SWIy would like to continue treating his symptoms with an amphetamine class stimulant, then I would recommend sticking with Vyvanse since it seems to work well for SWIy. If for some reason SWIy wants to try a different medication, give Dexedrine a try; it also lacks the previously mentioned levo isomer.

As far as discontinuing these medications, the usual advice is ween off of them gradual. For example, cutting your dose in half every few days.

Hope this helps!

[boizm]

SWIM has been on addy XR and IR for 1.5 years with a short ritalin/concerta stint in there and can relate closely with SWIY's mood swings, etc. Just recently SWIM started on 15mg dex ExR instead of 30mg addy xr and finds the moods swings less common and the overall anxiety much less severe. Tho, SWIM would abuse his addy heavily from time to time for recreational and academic purposes and refuses to switch to vyvanse for that reason, and also because shire is pushing vyvanse partly because their patent on addy XR is almost up. that's a whole different thread, the pharm companies influencing doctor's rx's for both of their financial gains.

SWIM would also mention that he finds sleep to be even more important when on stims because his body uses up more energy and stuff during the day.

boizm added 4 Minutes and 30 Seconds later...

also SWIM wants to say that he was on prozac because one doc thought his mood swings were an independent symptom. this helped and didn't interfere with the stims and only took himself off the SSRI because missing a dose caused horrible, horrible mood swings for a day or two.

perhaps SWIY would benefeit from looking into mood stabilizers.

ps, first post! (well, this is the second)

boizm added 2 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

also SWIM wants to say that he was on prozac because one doc thought his mood swings were an independent symptom. this helped and didn't interfere with the stims and only took himself off the SSRI because missing a dose caused horrible, horrible mood swings for a day or two.

perhaps SWIY would benefit from looking into mood stabilizers.

to the second post, SWIM found ritalin to cause worse mood swings than addy

ps, first post! (well, this is the second)

[dark12]

Good info SWIboizm.
Perhaps this is evidence that the lack of the levo isomer is more important than the actual dosage difference between Adderall and Vyvanse/Dexedrine.

[Poster1]

Thanks for the reply's all. Swim is currently on his three day weekend so he is attempting now to stop taking the drug all at once, like he tried and failed to do with XR. Swim is really trying to take care of this "problem" before he sees all of his family members at Christmas. His last dose of Vyvanse((typical 50mg)) was taken Thursday morning and Swim can without a doubt feel the effects of the withdraw now((Friday night)), but it isn't bad compared to his XR experience; which definitely supports SWIdark12's levo isomer theory.

Swim will keep this thread updated as his moods change and determine if stopping immediately is a good decision, if not he will begin cutting down on his doses and eventually ending them hopefully.Again thank you for the reply's, it's nice to find others that are aware of this "problem".

[boizm]

SWIPoster1 is probably safe stopping the intake of vyvanse or any other amphetamine. SWIM never noticed any bad effects after emptying his addy bottle in a weekend and then having none to take for weeks until a new script was allowed.

SWIM thinks one might even benefit in the long run from such behavior because it slows the rate of tolerance and/or depency.

[dark12]

Definitely.
SWIM occasionally takes week-long breaks to lessen his tolerance if he notices it getting too high. The first few days usually suck, but eventually he forgets about it.

[boizm]

what sucks about it? just not having it?

[dark12]

When SWIM goes a few days without his prescribed amphetamines he usually experiences the average withdrawal effects such as depression, tiredness, lack of motivation, and a huge appetite.

[cra$h]

With mild doses of aderall, anything less than 60mg, swim can get unpredictable, moodwise. One minute he'll be jumping around, then next he'll be out of it. It takes him a lot to comprehend what people are saying, especially if it's not said clearly, or if any words are missed. But swim takes a little more, and he's speeding for most the day.

Swim's advice: If you don't like an unpredictable mood, take more.

[e4rolls]

SWIM had a long time prescription for Adderall XR 30mg and waqs experiencing severe depression around 6:00PM every day.

SWIM started taking Effexor XR (venlafaxine) which helped offset the depression problem.

SWIM finally got prescribed Adderall IR 30mg for the afternoon as a "booster" which completely solved his evening mood swings.

Now SWIM is prescribed Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) 50mg and has no bad side-effects from it. SWIM is going to ask his pdoc to increase his dosage to 70mg next month because Vyvanse does not cover his symptoms more than 8 hours.

Good luck getting off the amphetamines and still being happy with your ADD being untreated. Sounds like alot of fun.