What's up people-

I'm trying adderall after being on concerta for years , ( I was on 108mg concerta for a long time ) ... I can tell that the adderall is helping me but it's vastly different than concerta is. How can I tell if my dosage is too much? Would I feel drowsy ? I am aware that with adhd meds, there is very small line between the beneficial dosage and the dosage that can make you feel symptoms like drowsy, or sluggish. I'm trialing 30mg xr twice daily . Once in the am and once in the afternoon . I think that conversion coming from 108mg concerta would be about right wouldn't it? I swear that I take 10mg of adderall xr and it feels like it helps, maybe I don't need as much as I'm prescribed , is that possible ? Anyways, if you have any suggestions drop me a line -

Oh, and I need to post one more thing about my trialing experience. Once I take the am dose I'm not feeling any real effectiveness until about 2 hours after the first dose. Is that standard?

Adderall starts kicking in fairly soon after taking it. In theory you should really start feeling it progressively work after about an hour until it reaches peak (5-7 hours). Methylphenidate kicks in faster vs amphetamine.

If you are taking 30mg XR twice a day then that equals 15mg IR 4x a day.
A more approximate way to equal your 108mg of Concerta is taking (2) 30mg XR capsules in the morning which equals 30mg of IR twice a day.

Concerta : Adderall XR
36mg 20mg
54mg 30mg
72mg 40mg
90mg 50mg
108mg 60mg

Now, I'm not advocating or recommending how to take it but just spitting out figures I've gathered.

J

No , I understand that your not advocating that I take it that way , but thanks for the input. Sometimes if I take it all at once it doesn't seem to last as long or may or may not be as effective as splittling the dose into a morning + afternoon day dose of ( 30xr am) + ( 30xr afternoon) . I guess I will only know by trialing. You are correct , at first it was misleading for myself to think that the adderall wasn't working right off the bat , then I figured out that it was in fact working yet it does have a slower onset than does the mph or ritalin based drugs. So far it's not perfect but adderall is helping

Jr-

It's been about a week or so on the adderall xr and I'm at 80mg and I'm still not getting the hourly coverage that I was getting with the mph or concerta...... and the dropoffs aren't cool at all . I'm wondering if I should give up on the adderall and just go back to mph as I've always been a primary mph responder.... Huh, it's strange because at times in the past I've had success with adderall ......******* A-

Hollywood,I just began adderall (actually amphetamine the generic for adderall) it is not the XR version. SHe started me of at 5mg and after 5 days went to then 10, then another 5 days at 10 and up to 15 all the way to 20. THis is were i have been since. I definatley felt a difference from it within the first hour or so. I break it up and take 10mg when i wake up and then another 10 at lunch time and find it works well this way. I defiantly know that it has taken effect. It could possibly go up a bit, but i don't think that i want to go up just yet if it is working pretty good. No sense upping it just to do it, also a little weight concern on my part, can't really loose much more. Not much of a loss but a bit that i noticed and don't want it to be more if it is not needed. I had to cut out the caffeine cause it made me a bit jittery. Other then that it works good. Hope this helps. I do have a question for anyone though, what does the xr mean after the adderall on some of the posts. Is there a difference??

xr represents extended release. Being that you have generic adderall that means that you have the ir (instant release ) version-

Jr-

It's been about a week or so on the adderall xr and I'm at 80mg and I'm still not getting the hourly coverage that I was getting with the mph or concerta...... and the dropoffs aren't cool at all . I'm wondering if I should give up on the adderall and just go back to mph as I've always been a primary mph responder.... Huh, it's strange because at times in the past I've had success with adderall ......******* A-

Maybe try Vyvanse? It's dexedrine on an extended release - not too much of change from Adderall effects wise; it lasted longer for me (i.e. versus adderall) when I took it.

Hollywood,

How did Concerta work for you? ... Why did you come off of it if it was seemingly effective? ...

concerta works well. Sometimes I get sort of a sedated focus and that's why I gave the adderall a shot. From my experience I'm pretty sure I don't respond too well to adderall so there's no use in my dragging the subject out. I just figured since most people do respond to it that I'd give it a shot for a month-

Interesting. Your experience just solidifies the fact that everyone responds a little different to these meds.

Concerta has a great delivery (pretty much like a plastic squeezable bottle of ketchup that gets more pressure over time) system that is extremely reliable and not subject to food and gastric pH, unlike adderall. Time release bead systems will always have an uneven profile from person to person or even from day to day. Too many variables in the equation for 100% reliable delivery.

As someone else mentioned, Vyvanse is about equal in terms of reliablity with Concerta although the 'lag-time' sucks. Takes even longer than Adderall XR to start kicking in.

J

yeah for me that lag time you mention with vyvanse is too long. I guess it's back to my concerta +ritalin (booster ) combo. Although nothings perfect the ritalin meds have always been best for my adhd , sometimes it makes me less social but thats the price you pay for making better decisions daily-

To get a proper dosage, the general rule of thumb is that you want to start out with a dosage as high as possible but without suffering any unwanted side effects. If you find the side effects of the medication are not tolerable, then drop the dosage. If you start out on the low end, then it's harder to gauge the efficacy of the medication when raising the dosage.

If you're on the proper dosage, you should be functioning close to normal.

Gary ,

I started out on a low dose of adderall , =nothing. I worked up to a moderat dosage according to fda guidelines ( 80mg ) and success was fractional , the medication was not lasting nearly as long as it should be . Basically , what I'm saying is that I know the trialing process....Did I miss something here ? That's why I went back to concerta , being that the adderall even at higher doses was doing virtually nothing -

Hollywood,

I totally support you trying to check out different medications. Sometimes comparison really is the only way to get a sense of how your current medicine is working. (You might have a great stereo system, but you don't know it until you meet someone with a terrible system. Suddenly you can compare.)

good luck ... Adderall XR at 30 mg isn't doing all that much for me, and I expect I will be trying concerta soon ....

thanks tone,

exactly why I trialed adderall in the first place. It's good to know how much your current medication is working in contrast to something that does absolutely nothing .

good luck on the adderall as well as the concerta if you give that a shot-