When I called the psychiatrist I decided to have diagnose and treat me, the receptionist literally asked me if i wanted to be medicated...I told her I was kind of hoping the psychiatrist could help me with that decision and she said he only presribes medication to treat patients.

So what I am wondering, since I have been doing my ADD research, is which medication, if any, I should bring up in our session. I read the success stories of the Adderall and the Dex and both seem to have worked wonders for many many ADDers, but the Adderall seems to have more satisfied patients.

THanks for any advice.

I took adderall on and off for years and always had problems with the side effects but my cousin is on it now and she loves it. Ive been on dex for 8 months ive had great sucess but everyone reacts differently to stimulents. All you can do is try them both and see what works better.

I agree with jbc about how we each can react differently to these drugs.

You really wont know for sure until you try them out yourself.

There might be some advantage in trying Dexedrine first before Adderall simply due to the fact that Adderall does contain levoamphetamine which is more often than not associated with a greater incidence of negative side effects than dextroamphetamine typically is.

Even though that might be true for most, the whole thing about each person responding differently makes it something that is just impossible to predict.

I have taken each of the stimulants (except Vyvanse & Daytrana) since 1992, and I have found that the best ones for me have been Desoxyn, Dexedrine, and Focalin. Each one of these drugs is just the dextro isomer of their parent molecules from which they each came from.

Desoxyn is dextromethamphetamine, Dexedrine is dextroamphetamine, and Focalin is dexmethylphenidate. More often than not these drugs are considered to possess fewer negative side effects than the racemic mixtures (parent compounds) that typically preceed each of them as a first line approach.

Cool deal! Which one is typically more expensive at say...Wal-Mart pharmacy...? I do not have insurance so thats another concern of mine.

Good question. I understand completely, as I pay out of pocket for these things too.

Desoxyn if by far the most expensive, and also the one that most pharmacies will either not order, or claim that they have no idea what your talking about. Of course once they look it up you get the standard "wow, I never heard of this one." Desoxyn sells for about $2.00 or more per tablet everywhere that it is sold.

The next most expensive one would be Focalin, however if you go to the Focalin XR website you can print off a coupon for a free one month trial of the drug. Without the coupon it runs about $100.00 to $150.00 per month usually (depending on the total amount prescribed).

Dexedrine is by far the most affordable of the three. Walmart has a wonderful price. I pay $64.00 for 200 of the 10mg immediate release tablets. Walmart only carries the Barr brand generic, but I have found this to be a very acceptable drug. Some people claim that it's too "rough around the edges" for them, but everyone is different in the way that they will respond to a given drug. I have a pharmacy in town who can, and will order me the Mallinckrodt generic if and when I choose to go that route. It's a little bit more expensive at $90.00 for 400 of the 5mg immediate release tablets, but it is a little smoother than the Barr brand.

I have grown to prefer the more stimulating effect of the Barr brand dex when I have to go to class, but when school is on break I prefer the Mallinckrodt because of its smoother (milder) effect. Mallinckrodt supplied the manufacturer of the brand name with their brand name product in a joint marketing deal that they struck in 1999. Having taken all of the generics available (except Ethex) and the brand name Dexedrine, I can honestly say that I can tell no difference between the Mallinckrodt 5mg IR tablets and the Dexedrine 5mg IR tablets. That being said, the Barr having a little more stimulation is what I prefer for work or school.

Good luck on all this, and I hope that you can keep us posted on how this all unfolds for you.

Appreciate it. Whats the "mean" price for Adderall?

here's a quick link to look up drug prices

http://www.walgreens.com/library/finddrug/druginfosearch.jsp

wallmart had the cheapest price by far for adderal around me. Wallmart doesnt carry dexadrin at least not in philly.I'd go with dexadrine its still cheaper no matter were you get it and has less side effects.