I take Adderall IR, and I'm trying to find the right dose. I'm at 20 mg (2x/day) now, but I feel like it's off by a bit, maybe 5 mg + or -. I wanted to try dialing it back to 15, but that would require cutting the pill. (And yes, I'm trying to talk to my dr. about this, but he's hard to get a hold of, and in the meantime I'd like to get a decent night's sleep.)

Can you cut the IR pills without screwing up the med's effectiveness? Any suggestions for cutting them neatly? (When I tried to cut one in half earlier it broke into jagged pieces that shot off in different directions. Oops.)

I'd love to hear tips on figuring out higher/lower/"just right" doses. I've found a little bit in other threads about this, but not much, and it's especially hard right now b/c
1) the side effects aren't as all-or-nothing as when it was way too low or way too high, and
2) I seem to get side effects that contradict each other. Like, trying to sleep is just torture (too high?), but I also experience irritability, hyperfocus, and seem to be getting much less done in general (too low?).

*bangs head on wall.* What do I do?

Hi oedipa.maas, and welcome to the forums.

I'm glad you are including your Dr in the loop on all this. I feel very strongly about the importance of that.

To answer your question, no, cutting an IR tablet will not effect anything other than make the tablet smaller and reduce the dose as a result.

When I first started on these drugs many years ago. My Dr would often say to me, "well, if this is not enough than wait a week and just sprinkle a little more on top of this dose." Well, he was not giving me a prescription for powders, he was giving me a prescription for pills. However, I found that the image he gave me with his description of my titrating my dose by "sprinkling more on top" was very vivid image for me.

As a result, I initially would crush up a tablet between two spoons when I needed to "sprinkle a little more on top" as he put it. It was the only way at the time that made sense to me and I also thought he was litterally wanting me to "sprinkle."

He got a kick out of me doing that after I told him that I was actually sprinkling it on top sometimes, and he said it was just a figure of speech, but he also said there was no harm done and that if I wanted to titrate that way that he was fine with it.

The only down side to that method was that the powder does not taste very good for any of these medications, so the tablets, or a half or 1/4 tablet go down much easier on the pallet.

Eventually I came across something called a pill splitter that you can get at any pharmacy. They are made out of cheap plastic like a cheap pencil sharpener, and they have a razor blade kinda like a pencil sharpener too. They usually cost a buck or two, and will last for many years. I have found them to be a very useful tool to have on hand over the years, and it might be something that you might want to consider. Here's a pic of what I am referring to:
http://www.forgettingthepill.com/ForgettingThePill/images/338.jpg

Howdy! I was just telling another member yesterday about how I prefer to break up my IR tablets.....here is the post:

Howdy! Miss Madness here......

My psychiartrist switched me from Ritalin (70 mg) to Adderall IR (40 MG).

He wanted me to take 20 mg of IR in the morning and 20 mg of IR at lunch. For the first few weeks I was experiencing all kinds of rebound and side effects. So I asked my sister (who is a pharmacist) about splitting up the doses. (I didn't call my pysch because he was out for a week) She said it would be okay to split up the tablet. So I tried 10 mg IR in morning, 20 mg IR at lunch and 10 mg IR in afternoon. It worked much better. So next visit with my psychiartrist, I inquired about making that my new system. He said it was fine...and that I could also do 10 mg IR x 4. So depending on my schedule....shorter days I do 10/20/10. And on longer days I do 10/10/10/10. I have noticed that the Adderall is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE and less side EFFECTS when I split up my dosage verses larger doses at once. I might try something like that before increasing your dose!! Hope this helps some.

Hi lars, thank you so much for the suggestions. It's a relief not having to choose between taking my rx and sleeping more than a few hours per night until I talk to my dr. next week. I found one of those pill splitters you mentioned and tried it out this evening, and sure enough, it makes a big difference. (The "sprinkle" anecdote totally made me chuckle. Good to know nothing bad will happen if I accidentally ingest some of the powder.)

MissMadness, thanks for pointing out your post, I hadn't seen that one. That was a huge help-- I had also gotten the feeling that smaller doses work better for me than a big one or two, but I wondered if I was just imagining it or what. Your post reminded me that everyone's got to figure out what works best for them individually, though. Thank you!

good question i wanted know the same thing about splitting the pills..... Lars will that pill cutter split a 10mg malikdrodt in half because they seem to fall apart any time i try and do it with a knife or my fingers.

MissMadness, thanks for pointing out your post, I hadn't seen that one. That was a huge help-- I had also gotten the feeling that smaller doses work better for me than a big one or two, but I wondered if I was just imagining it or what. Your post reminded me that everyone's got to figure out what works best for them individually, though. Thank you!


Glad it helped. And yes, for sure breaking my doses up help me out tremendously! 20 mg in 2 doses was too strong for me and I had terrible rebound / come down effects. Spacing the 40 mg out in 4 does has done wonders!!!!

Lars will that pill cutter split a 10mg malikdrodt in half because they seem to fall apart any time i try and do it with a knife or my fingers.I think a pill cutter will split a Mallinckrodt 10 tablet just fine, however I would suggest that you talk to your Dr the next time you see him/her about the possibility of switching to the 5mg Mallinckrodt tablets.

I am not trying to convey that you should talk to your Dr about changing your dose. However, what I am trying to convey is that I have found over the years of taking different types of dextroamphetamine tablets, that taking two of the 5mg IR Mallinckrodt tablets is more effective for me than taking one of their 10mg IR tablets. I have heard others here who have reported the same thing.

My theory for why this happens is because the Mallinckrodt 5mg IR tablet is a generic version of the original Dexedrine 5mg IR tablet. As you likely know, Dexedrine only came in a 5mg IR tablet. However, Dextrostat, which is a brand name generic is available up to a 10mg IR tablet, and I believe that the Mallinckrodt 10mg IR tablet is actually a generic version of the brand name generic Dextrostat.

Since the FDA will not allow the release of a generic drugs bioavailability information, it is very difficult to confirm this. However, I've become quite a "connoisseur" of some of these medications you might say after taking them for so long, and I feel like I can detect subtle, and sometimes not so subtle differences that tend to exist between them.

I also feel that since others have reported experiencing the same thing as myself concerning the difference between the 5mg & 10mg Mallinckrodt IR dex tablets that I feel safer assuming that the reaction has little to do with placebo effect.