this is my first post, and these quality Mall brand generics have me a swimmin' in neurochemisrty, so i will digress often and without return... i've read a lot in these forums and respect the community i found here, thanks for providing such a bottomless store of information on my biggest personal idiosyncrasy...

i was diagnosed with ADD in december 1988 at 8 years old. i had been through the litany of psychotropic drugs by the time i was 17 and left high school, and abandoned treatment. in that time i had gone from ciba-geigy ritalin 2.5 milligrams x 3 (as a 40 pound child) up to 20mg x 4 some IR, some SR (as an 88 pound teenager). in that time, i was lucky enough to have a father who, being a doctor, had lots of money, great health insurance, and a DEA number (which became a problem but that is irrelevant) the point is, i never touched a generic drug in my life, especially a stimulant. i had limited success with ritalin, it was my stimulant of choice for many years possibly because my grandfather was a drug representative for ciba-geigy for years and swore by it. back in the sixties, medications like these weren't controlled stringently; they would routinely give him thousands of unmarked samples to distribute to doctors and colleagues. he developed a love afair with ritalin that ended with DEA scheduling in the 1970's. i quit taking ritalin in 1997.

i had tried the d isomer of amphetamine for the first time as a brand name 15 milligram spansule in 1996. it was my trial day and i was seeking relief from my overwhelming ADD symptoms that ritalin could no longer abate. i remember sitting on my plaid bedspread at home, feeling <i>good</i>. our trial went well, but my parents divorced shortly thereafter and we lost it all, i didn't care much about my lack of impetus and distractability working menial jobs and sleeping late. fast forward 10 years of drinking beer and earning a carbo-gut.

well, i've had a good job for a few years now, and now my symptoms bother me again. i went to my family physician, who is familiar with my case history, and he asked me which course of treatment i'd prefer. having tried them all (except real abbott desoxyn, no longer made) i requested the old standby spansule and suggested a starting dose of two 15 milligram spansules very early in the morning. he balked, however, and asked me to try strattera. i agreeed to give it three weeks. it was, simply put, awful. i don't like the effect of any reuptake inhibitor, and i had auditory hallucinations, acute urinary retention, and erectile dysfuntion at the age of 24. i scheduled a follow up and we found that i had dropped from 175 (tiny bit overweight) down to 163 without knowing it, in 12 days. when i related my disappointment, he conceded to dispense the stimulants i had originally requested. i took my prescription downstairs and in the basement there is a tiny independent druggist's, being naive, i was unaware that there were generic spansules available, and didn't know what brand i was seeking. she didn't have the 15's, so she gave me 90 10's instead. luckily for me, they were Mallincrockt (sp?) brand, who i had never heard of, but figured d-amphetamine is not too hard to produce clandestinely, i was sure a laboratory would do just fine.

the malls are just as potent, but the release timing bothers me to no end. the SKB dex spansules released some d-amp promptly, then feature a smooth titration and reach peak plasma in <6 hours, these mall brand capsules have <i>no</i> effect whatsoever until eight hours after consumption when all of the medication seems to arrive at once, causing minor euphoria and anxiety. i am not taking them with a high fat meal, just plenty of water.

i am also familiar with the immediate release dextrostat tabs. i can use the 5mg tablets to establish my own free form daily total to accomplish my goals, usually 30-40 mg.

so while i'm satisfied with the mall brand d-amphetamine psychological response, i'm looking for a way to effectively defeat the time release so as not to be stuck with 90 useless meds. what i am doing is this: given the innate solubility of amphetamines in water, i'm using steam distilled water in a glass with a blunt object to crush the balls, soak, stir, crush, repeat. what i've noticed in doing this is that in brand name dex, half of the balls dissolve <i>immediately upon pouring the water on</i> with mall brand, <i>none</i> of the balls dissolve without masceration with a tool, and still they don't break down completely for almost 15 minutes of agitation and masceration. is there another method of defeating the time release property of coated d-amphetamine? does anyone else have release problems with mallincrockt brand spansules?

ryan

(ps i feel verrrry lucky to have been so naive about the generic equivalence between brands and just so happened to find the pharmacy that stocked the good stuff, and only an 8 dollar copay and a <i>two minute</i> wait!)

I'd say you go back to your doctor ASAP, explain to him the effect of the medication, and ask that your dose of spansules be reduced down to 20mg in the morning, supplemented with 10mg of immediate release in the morning. This should smooth things out for you and still allow you to use up your spansules instead of going through the rigmarole described above. When you have finally used up the spansules, you may prefer to continue on such a regimen of 10 IR and 20 SR in the AM, or just switch to 15mg IR twice a day.

good advice Chadwick. but the guy's got these things and he's paid for them. a mortar and pestle oughta do it better than any other way. smash everything into powder in a minute or so.

thanks guys, yes i'm definitely going back to my physician as soon as refill time has come, i don't want to bother him before then. does anyone make a decent 10mg immediate release tab? i don't know how comfortable he will be with dispensing me 240 dexedrine in a month.

Just get one of those pill crushers that are sold in the pharmacy. They are either blue or red. They crush fine in there. I had the same situation happen to me...actually...I wasn't supposed to get the spansules but did. I had the pill crusher already and used it for the Mallie 10mg spansules and it works just fine.

Lucky you can get SR dex where you are. I havent heard of them in Australia. Limited to one generic brand of dex... Bummer. I hate the highs and lows it causes!

"escape from the british penal colony"

LOL!!
Isnt the north east of the US just another colony?

Read my post again. ;)

good advice Chadwick. but the guy's got these things and he's paid for them. a mortar and pestle oughta do it better than any other way. smash everything into powder in a minute or so.

Lucky you can get SR dex where you are. I havent heard of them in Australia. Limited to one generic brand of dex... Bummer. I hate the highs and lows it causes!

In Canada we have a choise of Spandules or tabs made by Glaxo Smith Kline. So there is not much more choice here. GSK, I understand is one of the better manufactureres and the original maker of the drug. It can be made generically and then you are at the whim of the generic manufacturer.

Don't feel to bad that Dexedrine SR will be the same as Dexedrine tabs. Some of the medication is always lost in the mechanics of timing the release. In the case of Dexedrine SR (spansules) from a 10 Mg spansule, 5 is rleased right away then the rest over the rest of the 8-10 hours.

I took spansules first, and felt like I was always falling, like on a plane when you are on the approach too touchdown. I seemed like forever and I was always descending ready, but not quite landing. I hated it. I asked for the tabs and have not wanted the Spansules back.

Tabs last a steady 4 hours and a bit longer. I found taking them at 4 hour intervals (at least trying to!) I was able to get a stable action so that I don't even think about the dexedrine, just what I'm doing. The convence of time release isn't always what it's cracked up to be!

I am very happy with the tabs now...

cheers

Katatak

today i asked my doctor to switch me from 30mg SR to 30mg IR, and he agreed.

i went downstairs to the in house pharmacy. they are independently owned.

they carried Mall. brand spansules, and ethex brand IR tabs. i accepted the ethex. they are wonderful. nothing at all like the barr tabs.

first, they tried to write me for IR 15's. no such beast exists. strange that i knew that and the healthcare provider didn't? yes. that script had to be torn up.

then, the nurse practitioner who wrote the script for me (the doctor and DEA license holder signs them FIRST ?!?!?) wrote for 60 by accident, thinking of the 15mg not the 10mg strength, then WROTE A "9" OVER THE "6" (?!?!?!?!)

i politely informed her that this being a class II drug (or any prescription drug at all), no way in HELL would i accept a modified script. no pharmacy on earth would touch that. most likely they'd call the cops and have me arrested, and with good reason. that script was also destroyed.

she finally cut me a script for #90 10mg tabs (yay!) but put BID markings, not TID. this screwed the computer at the pharmacy into thinking i was getting 45 days worth of meds, making it want to charge me TWO copays. BAH!! the doctor's office was unreachable (busy) by phone. what a day.

anyway: ethex is damned good, not as good as SKB or Shire brand names, but every bit as good as the elusive mallin IMHO.

ethex manufactures the whole gamut of CNS drugs, from anxiolytics to CNS stims to painkillers and a host of non-controlled drugs. i first tried their "041's" which is oxycodone 5mg IR capsule. it was very effective. glad i didnt pay more for brand. i know, apples and oranges, an opiate and an amine are different, but i'm 2 for 2 with ethex generics, and IMO they're battin' 1000.


thanks for your advice, guys.

ryan