I know the body creates tolerance to Adderall and I was wondering what effects does stopping for lets say 3-4 months and then restarting have? Does the patient start back up at the dose they left off at or do they start low?

I was told by my Dr that I won't develop a tolerance to Adderall (not sure that he meant it might not become less effective over time, like effexor or prozac can, but I don't think that's the same as tolerance). He said that doctors used to think taking med holidays was a good idea, but have since learned that keeping a steady dose is more effective than going up and down.

Just relaying the above, since I thought skipping Adderall on weekends was a good idea, but got yelled at!

Well I can tell you from my experience.

I was prescribed Adderall two years ago. It seemed to work great for about 6 months. At which point I may have built up tollerance to it. I was on 40mg. I wasn't having the same results, but I may have messed that up by weekend drinking binges, and by experimenting in increasing my own dosage. Not a good idea, and I would warn anyone against messing with what is working. So after a year I stopped taking it.

I just started Adderall again 3 weeks ago. I started at a lower dose, but not as low as someone who has never tried it. My starting dose was 20mg, and the first day I got that euphoric feeling that people tend to get when first starting Adderall. On my next visit I plan to add 10mg in the afternoon to avoid that afternoon fatigue and medication fading off feeling. I am thinking that 30mg should be just about right for now

So although I had built up a tollerance, it seems that a year off the medication has definately had the effect of me responding to a smaller dosage. I don't know what 2-3 months might do, but I would guess that you would start off a bit lower from where you were. Perhaps you might work up to where you were.

I know the body creates tolerance to Adderall and I was wondering what effects does stopping for lets say 3-4 months and then restarting have? Does the patient start back up at the dose they left off at or do they start low?

Do you really know? I have seen plenty of kids go off and on Adderall on the weekend, the summer, etc and it is never an issue. More on the subject of tolerance and theraputic levels of stimulants below at the link.
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17742

I guess I don't know but I heard it all the time and so believed it. I'm not sure now. Interesting discussion in that link. I think a lot of people assume they need to keep increasing their Adderall dose because everyone seems to say the body creates tolerance to it. People seem to say the same thing about the stimulant caffeine and the awake feeling people get from it. I've been drinking coffee since I'm 19 and I'm now 27. I've had 2 cups in the morning and felt more awake after it for the past 8 years and I've never really changed how much I consume. So no tolerance really showing there.