Hi all,
I have an issue. I have been on Concerta, Focalin, Vyvnase, and Strattera. None of which I have truly benefited from.
I also seem to fall into a medically induced depression after each of these medications. My conclusion is that I should take an anti depressant with a stimulant. I remember in the past that I did well on Lamictal, and that a med similar to Vyvnase(but not as strong). Does anyone have any experience with anti depressants and a stimulant? I would like to try Dexedrine and maybe lamictal. I don't know if the two can be combined, I don't know if this is a rather popular regimen with anti depressants and stimulants?

I'm currently on 10mg of Lexipro and 30mg of Vyvanase and I've been happy with the results that I've seen. I'm able to concentrate and focus on the task at hand. I've tried a higher dose of Vyvanase but I was too irritable and was awake for too long at night. A girl needs her beauty sleep!

i was on adderall and zoloft simultaneously.

adderall & cymbalta for most of this last year--just a month or so ago doc added dilantin to 1-help with the temper outbursts that were beginning & B-help with my sleep.
its not perfect, but the best ive found so far.

Wellbutrin is known to be both a mild stimulant and an anti-depressant, however it is generally regarded as a weird sort of medication. Nonetheless, some people find it very helpful.

Im on Dexedrine and Zoloft. Increasing both (need more help) but both are working well for what they are supposed to do.

I started with paxil and dexedrine, added wellbutrin, changed to wellbutrin XL. Now I'm increasing the wellbutrin XL and reducing the paxil.

Meds work differently for everyone, and different meds work on different symptoms. It can be a lot of trial and error.

I'd like to echo the trial and error approach, ppl respond differently to all drugs.

Also, some MD's are hesitant to prescribe both an amphetamine and an SSRI (like paxil or prozac) because there's a very slight chance that there can be a nasty side effect (serotonin syndrome), though IMHO you'd probably have to be taking pretty large doses of amphetamine for that to be a real threat.

FYI, lamictal is a mood stabilizer with anti-depressant effects; it's really an anti-epileptic drug in the first instance, as well as being used to treat bipolar disorder, but it's not really a first-line anti-depressant. But if it works for you, that's great.

Well, I just wanted to add that medication combinations have different effects on different people.

I personally can't do AD's myself, due to my bipolar disorder but I know lots of people personally (both online and off) that have done great on an AD/Stimulant combination.

Medication really is individual.

Well, I just wanted to add that medication combinations have different effects on different people.


Medication really is individual.This is so true. I've hear and read about people doing great on combinations, but when my doctor added Prozac to the Concerta I had been on without any problem for a year and a half, it messed things up in a big way. Somehow the Prozac sensitized my system to all stimulent medication (maybe something to do with downgrading the receptors -- there is kind of a sea saw effect when you raise the serotonin levels the dopamine levels go down) and I ended up with constant jaw movements, eye twitching, and some very vivid scary pseudo-hallucinations. In short I had to get off both medicine and still can't take Concerta without triggering the jaw movement.

I find mixing medicine scary because of that and because of the limited research there is on drug combinations. For myself, I've found that an 8 week program called "Depression the Way Out" by Dr. Nedley was very successful -- it was all wholistic and involved sunlight, breathing, diet, Omega III fatty acids, exercise and such. Dr. Ratey says in his new book Spark that in a head to head study with Zoloft, exercise was more effective in keeping depression at bay -- even treatment resisitant depression responds about half the time to exercise in as little as 10 days in some cases.

So these days I follow what I learned in the course to deal with anxiety and depression and utilize a very low dose of Adderall for the ADD issues.

I was on prozac before i was put on dexedrine, the two together worked great. However, I came off the prozac, thinking I didn't need it and I fell apart! My shrink htne put me on Lexapro 10mg a day (+ 20mg Dex a day) and the Lexapro made me soooo tired and out of it (tho balanced my moods) that I now take 5mg Lexapro a day but its not enough so I'm gonna go back to prozac, I felt great at that time and wish I had never stopped it.

But yeh everyone is different...