Adderall for Attention Deficit Disorder

Adderall is a stimulant medication used in the treatment of attention deficit disorder in both children and adults.

Made from a combination of four amphetamine compounds, Adderall is useful because it covers a broad range of attention deficit disorder symptoms, and because it is a "one a day" dosing. A child with attention deficit disorder usually has to take only one dose of adderall per day to get through school and get his homework done.

ADDerall

Adderall is a "cocktail" drug, or a mixture of four drugs, all from the amphetamine family. As a result it has a broad spectrum of symptom coverage. It also tends to last for about six hours per dose, so it can cover the entire school day.

It can be less "harsh" than Ritalin. ADDerall might be worth talking to your doctor about as either the first or second medication to try.

ADDerall tablets come in 5, 10, 20, and 30 mg doses offering great flexibility to a physician in targeting the optimum dose for any patient. Even greater flexibility is offered because the tablets are double-scored so they can be accurately split into halves or quarters. This means that ADDerall can be administered in increments as low as 1.25 mg, or adjusted in 1.25 mg increments.

ADDerall begins to work more gradually than Ritalin, or Dexedrine, and the "drop-off" slope is also much more gradual, meaning that there is less of a "trough" time at the end of the dose.

Expectations and Drawbacks of Adderall

ADDerall can be expected to work very well for the "space cadet" ADHD kids. Stimulants (including caffeine) are great for "inattention" or "brain fog" symptoms. We would estimate that 70% of Attention Deficit Disorder - ADHD Inattentive Type kids would respond to Adderall very nicely. For them, Adderall is a very easy treatment intervention.

Hyperactive-Impulsive kids respond less well to the stimulants. Maybe 60-65% will benefit.

Kids with impulsivity or temper outbursts either do very well, or they do very poorly.

These kids may also need something like Extress for temper, or Clonadine for extreme outbursts. We recommend the Extress nutraceutical medicine first. We have seen Extress work very well in reducing temper outbursts. You can buy it at from VAXA International. The Clonadine is like a "sledgehammer," but use it if you need to.

For the best results using a natural homeopathic medicine see our Specific Treatment Strategies, and use "Attend".

The main drawbacks of Adderall that we have observed are loss of appetite (feed a protein shake twice a day to help keep weight up), some irritability or anger (as when you have had too much caffeine), possible short term growth inhibition (though long-term this may not be a problem). Remember, every medication has possible bad side effects, so always closely monitor your child when taking medications!

If there is a problem, don't give the next dose, and call your doctor right away.

Adderall Side Effects

All stimulants have side effects, and the side effects from Adderall can be serious.

Any amphetamine can be over used and result in drug addiction.

Because Adderall is made from amphetamine, it can cause your child's heart to race, elevate heart rate to dangerous levels, and raise blood pressure to dangerous levels.

Adderall side effects include overstimulation of the central nervous system, dizziness, difficulty sleeping, tremors, headaches, hyperactivity, and tics or Tourettes Syndrome.

A common Adderall side effect is a dry mouth, a bad taste in the mouth, diarrhea, constipation, upset stomach, and loss of appetite.

Children often lose weight when taking stimulants.

Stimulants may reduce growth rates in children.

Sexual dysfunction is a common problem in adults using stimulants.

How effective is stimulant medication when compared to alternative treatments for ADHD?
See here.

Read FDA WARNINGS on Adderall

Clearly stimulants like Adderall work. But Adderall can also have serious side effects.

Alternative medicines like ATTEND also work, but without the side effects. They only drawback to ATTEND is that it takes about 30 days to really do the job, while stimulants begin working right away.