It's been a week since I've been on stimulants. I am experiencing occasional blurred vision. I just noticed as I was attending my night class, that I could not see the board! Just one week ago, when I took 10mg of XR in the afternoon, it was perfectly fine. I've been tolerating the cold hands/feet and headaches, but I cannot for blurred vision. Is this just Adderall, or stimulants?

Yes, I will be contacting my psychiatrist tomorrow morning but I would like to read some of your inputs.

JMO...but you may want to stop meds until you can get in to see your doc. If it's causing blurred vision that can't be a good thing if you're having to drive at all.

Thanks for bringing this problem up. I have been on the same dose of Adderral XL myself and I am having the same exact side-effect. I have been taking it for almost two weeks. I sure would like to know what is going on with the blurred-vision. I already have Glaucoma and this blurred-vision scare the Hell out of me. I hope somebody out there knows the answer. I see my doctor on the 28th, next Wednesday and I want a titraton to 30 or 40mg. a day. And I do not really even want to mention this problem because this Adderral has made a great big difference in my life for the better! I finally feel almost normal, at least as normal as I ever have before. This Adderral is like morphine is for chronic pain. It is so nice being able to finally concentrate and focus etc; etc; and etc. I would not want to not get it anymore.

I've had some issues with this as well. My med headaches seem to hit behind my eyes, like a pressure there, and I also have more "floaters" in my vision than I have had before. I'm scheduling an eye appointment soon to be checked out. My vision was getting a little fuzzy before the meds, now that I think about it. I may be more aware of it BECAUSE of the meds, if that makes any sense. Also, could blood pressure be a factor? Mine has always been low, but on my last physical, on ADDerall for about 5 weeks, it was 120/80.....perfectly normal, but high for me. Blood pressure can affect vision, I think.

Maurice, I understand your feelings completely, I hope you don't mind me voicing my opinion. In my opinion I think you should speak up and let your doctor know. Sometimes the fear of what the doc might do is far worse than the reality of what can be done to correct things. I work with adults with chronic mental illness, and some of these folks are on a ton of meds and have multiple medical problems. They are afraid to change things because they are working well. When I've helped them talk with their doctors, there is often a fix that they feel comfortable with. By "often" I mean it works more than 90% of the time. Out of the other 10%, 9 out of 10 times they are told it is their choice to continue and deal with the issue, or to make the change. I respect whatever decision you make, but I would hate for your vision issues to get worse if there is something that could be done to help keep that from happening. The fix may not entail changing your ADD meds, so it's worth considering. I hope it all works out for you!

Take care,
Emmie

I have really great eyesight and I notice sometimes on the meds my vision gets a little blurred, but not to the point where I struggle reading or driving. It just makes things look a little cloudy and doesnt really bother me.

I noticed some visual changes with Adderall as well. Adderall (most stimulants, acutally) causes pupil dilation, which can increase light sensitivity. Also, if you have a mild astigmatism or something (like I do), then my guess is that the dilation can cause more distortions with vision.

I also got more floaters, never did figure out why; vision exams were always normal.

I noticed some visual changes with Adderall as well. Adderall (most stimulants, acutally) causes pupil dilation, which can increase light sensitivity.

Good point but I wonder if the glaucoma (pressure in the eye)/ blood pressure
may explain blurriness more. In general stimulants are contradicted in those with glaucoma/high blood pressure. Or at the least it require readjustment of glaucoma/blood pressure medication.

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

Wikipedia say amphetamine can cause blurry vision.

I was thinking dry eyes maybe a cause to. Assuming stimulants can dry the eye.

Just like djotroy17 said the blurring is not so bad that it would interfere with my reading or driving or anything else. I appreciate what Emmie said because I have to take eyedrops for my glaucoma. The Adderall helps so much I would really be upset if glaucoma made it so I could not take it. On the other hand if it just meant that I had to simply use more eyedrops, that would be fine with me.

My psychiatrist said he has never heard such side effects so he recommended me to take a few days off and then try the lower dose, then try a new med. I noticed it happened when I upped my dose to 20mg (with permission) based on reading my logs however when I lowered to 10mg, it still happened (day 2 after decreased dosage).

I think I'll stop Adderall, it causes more harm than good for me. Instead of helping me focus, I am loosing focus wondering what is wrong with my eyes, why are the text not clear, etc.

Your blurred vision (myopia) is most likely caused by your stimulant medication influencing (for the worse) the autonomic control of the little muscles in your eyes responsible for keeping your vision clear and focused (i.e. letting in the optimum amount of light, optimally focusing the light). This is an unfortunate side effect, the occurrence of which should not surprise anyone who experiences it.

As with most side effects, some people develop it and some do not. It's easy to tell if the drug is causing the problem or if your vision has suddenly gone bad (unlikely): test your eyes one day before you take your meds, then test them later in the day after you have taken your meds. Chances are, based on your complaints, that you will find your meds are making your vision significantly worse.

As when attempting to minimize any side effect, you should experiment to find the smallest dose that is sufficiently effective/tolerable for you. Your vision might be fine if you take a lower dose. If not, you might have to get some eye glasses to correct your distance vision while medicating. Don't give up on medicating before you've tried all the ADD drugs at a variety of doses -- immediate release tablet forms included.

Remember that some people are exquisitely sensitive to stims and need to take much less of them than others -- because very little is effective and/or because very little is all they can tolerate. Even if it takes years, you should keep searching till you find the right drug, the right form of the drug (XR vs. IR), and the best way of taking it (timing, with/without food, etc.).

Stimulants often cause dry eyes and dry eyes can cause blurry vision, but the influence of stims on how your eyes accomadate (discussed above) is much more likely to be the primary cause of your problems. That is why eye drops probably won't do much more for you than temporarily relieve some itching or burning. Check it out.

Don't expect your psychiatrist to understand most of your SFX or sympathize openly with you too much regarding them. The only side effects that tend to really affect their reasoning are ones that sound life-threatening and ones that will lead you to elect to discontinue taking your meds. That is because there is pretty much nothing they can do about SFX except lower your dose or try a new drug and because their importance depends, in part, on how much good the medication is doing. Ultimately, they have to let you weigh the costs and benefits because you understand them best.

For some people, SFX go away after they have been on a medication for a while. For others, SFX come and go, never go away, or only get worse. The only way to know how stims will effect you in the long run is to take them for a long time (no easy solution).

If Adderall doesn't work for you, try another drug, try it in different forms (IR and XR), and try it in different doses. There are a lot of options. Adderall does not work for a lot of people who respond very well to other meds. Don't give up. You'll probably find that the methylphenidate-based drugs (i.e. Ritalin, Concerta, Focalin) have a very different effect on you compared to the amphetamines.