View Full Version : Other stimulants


Neuronic
01-12-08, 12:55 AM
I know of Ritalin,Adderal, and Concerta, but are there any other stimulant medications?

theta
01-12-08, 12:45 PM
I know of Ritalin,Adderal, and Concerta, but are there any other stimulant medications?

I assume you mean not offically FDA approved for ADHD treatment but perhaps
available off label for ADHD and your aware of all the drugs available here:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=18

Only thing I have heard of that a person reported on another site was very
usefull for their ADHD is phentermine. Though I think you will have to be obese to obtain it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phentermine

adhdaloha
02-17-08, 02:04 PM
i dont have much experience with other adhd medicines but i don't find phetermine that helpful. i think other speed will be better.
i noticed an improvement when i started taking phentermine but i find it does not last or seems not to be a clean feeling drug

Matt S.
02-17-08, 05:43 PM
Dexedrine, Focalin and Desoxyn are a few more.

Rags847
02-18-08, 12:31 AM
Modafinil! The mighty Modafinil!

http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/aug05/modafinil.html

http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/images/nprlogo.gif <!-- Nav bar --> Home (http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/main.html) | Contact Us (info@neuropsychiatryreviews.com) | Archives (http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/archives.html)

<!-- End nav bar --><!-- Paste article here, starting with the very first <TABLE...> tag --> <!-- and ending with the last </TABLE> tag --> <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#336699"> <td align="left" valign="top"> http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/aug05/images/vol6_no7.gif
</td> <td align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"> http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/aug05/images/aug_05.gif
</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">

Return to table of contents (http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/main.html)


<!-- Small caps headline --> PHASE III TRIALS DEMONSTRATE MODAFINIL EFFICACY IN ADHD <!-- Dateline, main paragraphs --> ATLANTA— Two phase III clinical trials presented at the 158th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association show that pediatric formulation modafinil is an effective new treatment for ADHD in children and adolescents and might be a safer alternative to the stimulant drugs now used.
<!-- Subhead goes here --> INCREASED ALERTNESS AND TASK PERFORMANCE
In the first trial, James M. Swanson, PhD, Director of the Child Development Center at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues evaluated the new modafinil pediatric formulation in children and adolescents with ADHD. “Modafinil increases alertness and task performance. It has been shown to be very effective and is widely used to treat excessive sleepiness, particularly narcolepsy. It appears to activate the prefrontal cortex in a different way than the stimulant drugs, and exploratory studies in attention-deficit disorder had looked at potential doses that might be effective for the treatment of ADHD,” Dr. Swanson said. “The next step was to try to adapt modafinil for pediatric use with a smaller, easier- to-take formulation targeting the doses the initial study suggested were the optimal for the treatment of ADHD.”
Dr. Swanson reported data from a nine-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial looking at flexible dosing with the new film-coated tablets of modafinil. The trial enrolled 194 patients ages 6 to 17 who met DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. All subjects were at least moderately ill by the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) rating, had normal intelligence, and were attending school full-time. Exclusions included failure to respond to previous stimulant therapy and untreated psychiatric comorbidities. One hundred twenty-eight patients were randomized to modafinil and 66 to placebo in a two-to-one randomization.
Patients randomized to modafinil had a starting dose of 85 mg titrated for a period of 22 days to clinical effect with once-daily dosing. The maximum dose was 425 mg/day. “The majority of the modafinil-treated group ended up on 425 mg per day,” Dr. Swanson said. Efficacy was assessed with the School (teacher-rated) and Home (parent-rated) ADHD rating scale (ADHD-RX-IV), the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement (CGI-I), and the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA).
The modafinil-treated patients had significantly greater improvement on the teacher-rated scores than did placebo-treated patients (-17.5 versus -9.7 mean change, respectively). The modafinil-treated patients also had significant improvement in the parent-rated scores (-17.5 versus -7.5). Dr. Swanson said that modafinil significantly improved the inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity ADHD-RS-IV subscales, the overall clinical condition as measured by the CGI-I, and the TOVA measurements of ADHD. “Parent observations favor modafinil, particularly regarding the impact on parent time, on emotions, and on social skills. This represents an increase in positive as well as a decrease in negative behaviors,” he remarked.
The most common adverse effects were insomnia (28% modafinil versus 7% placebo), headache (22% versus 9%), and decreased appetite (18% versus 3%). “These are the typical side effects observed with stimulants as well. Insomnia and appetite effects occurred early on and tended to decrease over time. Treatment discontinuation due to these factors was very rare,” Dr. Swanson said. There were no clinically significant changes in vital signs or in electrocardiographic, or laboratory parameters, and no serious adverse events. Weight loss occurred, but it was not clinically significant.
<!-- Subhead goes here --> AFFECTING THE NETWORK OF ATTENTION
Dr. Swanson acknowledged that modafinil’s mechanism of action in ADHD is unknown, but he proposed a possible mechanism in the context of the neuroanatomical network theory of attention. This theory proposes three underlying processes of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Alerting networks are thought to reside in the right frontal cortex, and increasing wakefulness or alerting might improve that component of attention. Such stimulation might also interact with executive control.
“Dopaminergic neurons and the ventral tegmentum area of the substantia nigra project up into the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens, and also directly into the anterior cingulate gyrus and to the prefrontal cortex,” Dr. Swanson said. “The stimulus operates by blocking the reuptake of dopamine, primarily in the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens, and activating the cortical striata thalamic loops. The activation of the cingulate gyrus and the frontal cortex has been well studied with stimulant drugs, which have been used for over a half century to treat attention deficit disorders.”
Instead of this bottom-up effect of blocking the dopamine transporter, Dr. Swanson proposed that modafinil might activate the anterior cingulate cortex. This, in turn, might affect executive function and alertness in ADHD.
<!-- Subhead goes here --> EFFECTIVE DOSING
The second modafinil study presented was from Joseph Biederman, MD, and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. They reported that the new modafinil pediatric formulation, given using weight-adjusted once-daily dosages, is effective and well-tolerated even with rapid dose escalation, and that this formulation does not cause withdrawal or rebound symptoms if suddenly stopped.
Patients in this study were similar to those in the Swanson study (ages 6 to 17, met DSM-IV criteria for moderate to severe ADHD). The protocol was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-to-one randomization to modafinil or placebo. Twenty patients were randomized to seven weeks of modafinil and 63 patients to placebo, followed by two weeks of withdrawal study. During the withdrawal period, half of the modafinil-treated patients were converted to placebo without dose tapering, and half continued taking modafinil. “This was to examine the effect of a common event, such as patients flushing their medications down the toilet after an argument with their parents,” Dr. Biederman said. “We wanted to know the consequences of stopping abruptly if you are taking a reasonably high dose.” Dr. Biederman is Chief of Clinical and Research in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Modafinil was given once daily, starting at 85 mg/day and increasing for a period of seven or nine days to 340 mg for patients weighing less than 30 kg or 425 mg for patients weighing more than 30 kg. Efficacy was assessed with both the School and the Home ADHD-RS-IV total score change from baseline to last on-treatment visit.
“After one week, the modafinil-treated patients had significantly greater improvement in School ADHD-RS-IV scores versus the placebo-treated patients and the effect was maintained through week 7,” Dr. Biederman said. The improvement in School ADHD-RS-IV at week 7 was -17.2 for patients receiving modafinil versus -8.2 for those receiving placebo. Modafinil also significantly improved total scores on the Home ADHD-RS-IV. Dr. Biederman noted that patients continued to improve over the ensuing weeks after reaching the upper dose level.
<!-- Subhead goes here --> NO REBOUND
ADHD symptoms did not rebound when placebo replaced modafinil, and the most common adverse effects were similar to those in the Swanson study: insomnia, headache, appetite decrease, and abdominal pain. “They were related to treatment initiation and generally resolved with continued treatment. There were very few discontinuations as a result of adverse effects. Weight loss was statistically significant but there was a very modest change in weight,” Dr. Biederman said.
The lack of rebound or withdrawal after abrupt discontinuation is likely to be an important point for clinicians. “The activation of dopamine not only impacts on the cortex, where the old medications work, but also affects other areas, such as the nucleus accumbens, and as a result the potential for abuse is a hazard,” Dr. Biederman said. “Modafinil is a scheduled drug, but it is a schedule IV drug, which is a big difference in practice for the practitioner as well as for the patient.”
“In summary,” Dr. Biederman concluded, “modafinil was effective in improving ADHD symptoms and behaviors. There was consistent and sustained improvement in school and after hours as reported by parents. A significant treatment effect was observed by week one. That was the week that the titration was completed. Symptoms and behaviors improved and as maintenance treatment continued, there was continued improvement.”
<!-- Author, references --> —Janis Kelly
Suggested Reading
American Academy of Pediatrics. Clinical practice guidelines: diagnosis and evaluation of the child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Pediatrics. 2000;105:1158-1170.
Rugino TA, Samsock TC. Modafinil in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Pediatr Neurol. 2003;29:136-142.
</td></tr></tbody></table>

theta
02-18-08, 07:45 AM
Modafinil! The mighty Modafinil!

I've used the analog adrafinil (metabolises to modafinil). I personally find it to
have only a mild stimulant action (like caffeine with fewer side effects). Modafinil is also a controlled substance in the US so a person could just as easily obtain a prescription for amphetamines or methylphenidates.

WithoutaPlan
02-18-08, 09:22 AM
I too have tried the analog to modafinil - adrafanil. I didn't find it to be of any help to my symptoms. It is definitely milder than any of the mainstream stimulants of the methylphenidate or amphetamine families.

Finding the right medication takes some trial and error as far as my limited experience goes. What works for others is not necessarily going to work for me.