Adderall - Old Page

ADDerall for ADHD
adderall

See our New Page for 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

This is a fairly new drug in the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder - ADD ADHD. The doctors that we know who have tried it really have come to like it.

It 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

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!

Adderall Side Effects - Old Page

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.

Adderall XR, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and a Glimpse Into the Future

Barron’s Magazine, is a financial weekly published by Dow Jones that keeps a very close eye on the world’s financial news and the corporations that are making news. Recently they ran a short series of articles on Shire Pharmaceuticals and the potential problems ahead for the company.

The reason that these articles are of interest to parents of children with ADHD, is that Shire makes Adderall, Adderall XR, and Vyvanse, all major medications used for ADHD treatment. The problems for Shire may be blessings for parents, so here are some of the details:

Shire has the patent on Adderall XR, which has been a controversial medication in the treatment of ADHD for several years now. And Shire’s patent on the drug expires in April of 2009. This means that other companies can begin selling “generic” versions of Adderall XR (which will initially be manufactured by Shire) next spring, potentially at prices far lower than Shire’s prices for Adderall XR.

Barron’s claims that Shire’s Adderall XR is the most prescribed drug for ADHD in the world with about 23% of the market, and that of Shire’s $2.4 billion in revenue last year, over 40% came from Adderall sales (about $1 billion). As investors look into the near future, and respond to what they see, Shire Pharmaceutical’s stock has fallen over 40% since September of 2007.

Vyvanse is Shire’s newest ADHD medication, a true pro-drug, where the medication’s precursors are linked to amino acids to make the medications less likely to be abused. At present Barron’s reports that Vyvanse has captured about 7.5% of the ADHD drug market, and that it is not gaining in popularity as quickly as some had hoped.

The Good News: Adderall is very popular, and by next year there may be less expensive forms of the medication available to families. This would be a generic form, but at least in the short-term would actually be manufactured by Shire itself but sold by two different companies.

The Bad News: Shire is actually good for us and we don’t want to see it suffer too badly. Shire Pharmaceuticals is one of the few companies in the entire world that is interested in developing, testing, and improving medications for ADHD children, teens, and adults. Most other pharmaceutical companies just want to tinker with what we already have, what we already know. Shire is willing to try new things, like using pro-drugs, in the treatment of ADHD. If there is ever going to be a really big breakthrough treatment brought to us from the pharmaceutical industry (as opposed to from the nutraceutical medicine industry) for the treatment of ADHD, it will certainly come from an innovative company like Shire.

So let’s keep our eyes open and see what happens next with Adderall XR. Stay in touch with your physician on this.