I have been taking Adderall XR for about a year and was up to 60mg a day. It seemed to work good, but after increasing from 50-60mg I started getting irritable real easy. My doc said to try Vyvanse instead, and had me switch directly from AXR 60mg to Vyvanse 70mg. Does that sound right? I am feeling crappy and I think he needs to increase the dosage. Its only been a couple days but it seems like something is wrong. I am an adult... can someone tell me what the normal adult range is, or maybe what the max adult dosage would be? Also, how do Adderall XR and Vyvanse compare as far as strength goes?

Thanks for any help!

You should probably be taking 140 mg of vyvanse.

mspen is correct

Adderall XR 10mg = Vyvanse 30mg
Adderall XR 20mg = Vyvanse 50mg
Adderall XR 30mg = Vyvanse 70mg

There are no official or approved doses for adults yet, still waiting on FDA approval (which is nothing more than a marketing ploy).


J

Yeah definately 120mg or 140mg Vyvanse for you

ok that explains it then. No wonder I feel like crap! Thanks everyone for the info... I will track my shrink down and convince him to reconsider the dosage.

Well, I got a call back from my doctors office today and they said that he is not going to increase it from 70mg. They said that 70mg is the maximum recommended dosage, and that if I just stick with it for a week or two I will be ok. Screw that! Going from 60mg of Adderall XR to 70mg of Vyvanse has totally screwed with me, and I am going to have to refuse to continue at that dose. I just wish that someone would tell these people how to prescribe this stuff!

Get some solid facts such as the Vyvanse site, print it off and calmly yet assertively bring this in. If they are not helpful ask to go back on Adderall. If they are not helpful I would personally get all relevant material such as past prescriptions and medical records and take this to higher ups such as hospital admin. or medical board. Incompetence is unacceptable from medical doctors. Remember CALM, POLITE, but ASSERTIVE.

Well, I got a call back from my doctors office today and they said that he is not going to increase it from 70mg. They said that 70mg is the maximum recommended dosage, and that if I just stick with it for a week or two I will be ok. Screw that! Going from 60mg of Adderall XR to 70mg of Vyvanse has totally screwed with me, and I am going to have to refuse to continue at that dose. I just wish that someone would tell these people how to prescribe this stuff!
Hearing that 30mg of XR was the maximum recommended dosage and that's all they could do for me from my General Pract is what made my decision final to see a psychiatrist. Only been once but he started me out (insisting I try it) on 100mg of Vyvanse... I requested a switch back to XR and he said he would up my dose but I came to the office to pick up the perscription he had written for adderall and it was only 30 30mg Capsules.... I go back nov 14th and I'm hopeing the guy will agree to either up the dose or atleast add a second dose in the afternoon but if he doesnt yeah I'm kicking him to the curb too.

I just cant seem to find any "official" info (like on the Vyvanse site) that says that if I was taking 60mg of Adderall XR, I should be taking 140mg of Vyvanse instead. Does anyone know of a link to something like that? I did find one that says 10=30, 20=50 and 30=70, but its not something official that I can give to my doctor and have him believe it. I wanna start that med instead of the XR, but it aint gonna happen at that low dosage! :cool:

You won't find one that says 60mg XR = 140mg Vyvanse. That's one of the issue's i'm dealing with only in a different position. According to shire's retarded brochures 30mg XR is the daily recommended dosage and because that's the highest on their reports alot of doctors won't perscribe above it daily. For Vyvanse it says 70mg. The best thing you can do I think would be to print out the dosages (10=30, 20=50, and 30=70) and ask him (don't dictate too him lol) if 120 or 140mg of Vyvanse should be the right dose for you. It's simple math if he couldn't see it I don't know what to think. Then again he could be worried about any adverse effects since Vyvanse is really new and there's few reports on it aside from those that are boasting it's incredible effectiveness in an effort to make shire $$.

What really made me cringe is their thing on Adderall XR even says the recommended dosage for adults is 20mg XR daily which made me cringe.

I am going to ask another doctor (I was going in for a second opinion next week anyway) and see what he thinks. Hopefully he will have better info than what my doc has.

Specialist are really the way to go. Psychiatrist who frequently treat ADHD and even child psychiatrist are usually good for adults. If a doctor says 70mg is as high a dose they can prescribe than you are wasting your time- ask for a referall and refer yourself to a specialist. It's frustrating but well worth it when you find a good doctor who knows this medical condition and how to treat it.

Hit your doc with this link. Click and save the chart then print it out (it comes out more clear). The chart was referenced from a study of a couple of well known Harvard docs that specialize in ADHD.

http://www.askdrjones.com/2007/10/15/my-brother-is-16-and-he-has-adhd-what-should-is-the-right-starting-dose/

J

Specialist are really the way to go. Psychiatrist who frequently treat ADHD and even child psychiatrist are usually good for adults. If a doctor says 70mg is as high a dose they can prescribe than you are wasting your time- ask for a referall and refer yourself to a specialist. It's frustrating but well worth it when you find a good doctor who knows this medical condition and how to treat it.
The problem is, I am seeing a psychiatrist -- he is the one that said the max dose is 70mg! :( So I am going to a new shrink this week and will ask him about it. The problem seems to be that the medication is so new that many of the shrinks out there just aren't aware of how to dose it. He told me, "Here -- take 70mg of this Vyvanse. It's about the same as the 60mg of Adderall XR you are on. Just stop the Adderall and start the Vyvanse... you'll be fine!" GOOD LORD! :foot: :eek:

Click on the link from post #13 and print it off. The deal with Vyvanse as far as milligrams are concerned is that being a prodrug, about half (approx.) of the milligram- say 70mg- is DEX and half is the part that has to be digested first. So for 70mg you are really only getting about 30mg of DEX and the other 40mg is digested (prodrug).

This is my understanding and it may not be entirely correct, but I am pretty sure it's close. You should not have to educate your doctor, but the reality is many don't know. Definitely check out the post 13 link.

ok that one is good, but I also found this other one today that I might use instead. It is actually from the manufacturer (Shire), and it details one of their studies. The study was designed to "Evaluate the safety and tolerability of Vyvanse administered orally in adults with a history of drug abuse," and it shows that 100mg of Vyvanse was approximately equal to 40mg of d-amphetamine (as far as tendancy for addiction).

It also states in the text that "Oral administration of Vyvanse 150 mg produced increases in positive subjective responses that were statistically indistinguishable from the positive subjective responses produced by 40 mg of oral immediate-release d-amphetamine."

At least this shows some correlation between the different dosages, and it's an official Shire document:
http://www.emedicine.com/infosite/vyvanse/article-5.htm