Hi! I'll try to keep this short but may fail miserably. I'm really curious if anyone has insight into the following issue: increasingly negative experience with 3 medications.

I am 28 and was diagnosed with ADHD about 6 months ago. Here's my experience with medication:

Adderall IR (Initial dose 10mg twice a day; titrated up to 25mg in AM and 20 PM):
Initally, my doc started me on Adderall, which worked great for the first 3 months (4 hours of coverage per dose, no side effects, ability to focus, more stable moods). After the 3 month period, Adderall effectiveness decreased -- I was only getting about 1.5 hours of coverage (regardless of how high or low my dose was) and was getting irritable and anxious. At that point, my doctor switched to Vyvanse

Vyvanse (Initial dose 70mg/day, titrated up to 100mg/day and back down to 75mg/day):
At 70mg, Vyvanse did not alleviate ADHD symptoms but made me a bit anxious; anxiety would set in within an hour of taking it. My doc increased the dose to 80mg, which was more effective at controlling my ADHD symptoms, but would also make me more anxious and irritable; I was only getting 5 hours of coverage. We tried increasing the dose again, but I would only get more anxious/irritable and would still only get 5 hours of coverage. After 8 weeks of this, my doc suggested trying Concerta last week.

Concerta (at initial dose of 54mg/day for the past 6 days)
Thus far, Concerta has made me very anxious, to the point where I am not sure if it's helping my ADHD symptoms, as I'm probably too anxious to notice. I'm not anxious about anything really -- it's mostly a physical sensation, but it's borderline debilitating -- it feels like anxiety is the only thing my mind is focusing on. Yesterday, I did not take Concerta and was not anxious at all. Today, I took it and an hour later, anxiety crept in.

I was wondering if anyone had similar experience or have any other insight to share. I feel like I'm beginning to get discouraged. Thanks! :confused:

Try Dexedrine with (or even without) a beta-blocker called "Corgard"
OR
Try Focalin with (or even without) a beta-blocker called "Corgard"
OR
Try adding an SSRI

Don't be discouraged. The above should do the trick.

Thank you so much! I'll look into this and talk to my doc. :)

Hi,

I'm on Concerta, started on 18 mg for 4 days, then 27 mg for 4 days and tomorrow start 36 mg for 4 days before going on to 54 mg.

My Dr. told me that feeling anxious is a common side effect and that it will go away. My side effects have been minimal to date... likely due to the low dosage. That said, I felt that same feeling of anxiety last week when I was travelling. I felt like I was ready to bungee jump or something, even though I was on vacation and had no reason to be anxious. My Dr. had told me not to take it on days where things will be crazy at work or if I have anything else stressful going on because it's like a double shot of adrenaline. He was right. I didn't take it for the rest of my vacation and re-started yesterday. I haven't had that same anxious feeling again. We'll see what happens as the dosage increases though.

My only other side effect to date has been some sleep walking at night. Nothing too serious but almost every night... Anyone else experience the same thing? I've always slept-walked but 99.9% of the time it would happen if I needed to get up really early and I was stressed that I would oversleep (not that I've ever done that).

I would be cautious about adding a SSRI. These are known to have sexual side effects, and terrible withdrawl. I would consider a different medication first.

here's from the first page of the
Concerta Prescribing Information PDF (http://www.concerta.net/concerta/assets/concerta_USPI_final_Adult_ADHD_26_Jun_08_JJPRD.pdf #zoom=56)

-------------------------------CONTRAINDICATIONS-------------------------------
•Known hypersensitivity to the product (4.1)
•Marked anxiety, tension, or agitation (4.2)
•Glaucoma (4.3)
•Tics or a family history or diagnosis of Tourette’s syndrome (4.4)
•Do not use CONCERTA® in patients currently using or within 2 weeks of using an MAO inhibitor (4.5)I would suggest desoxyn (dextromethamphetamine) to your doc. It has a lot of stigma, but is approved for ADHD by the FDA just like the other ADHD meds. It is known to be more smooth.

Just another idea, is to try the IR dexedrine. Some people react differently to IR dex vs. vyvanse. Additionally, you may want to try focalin which is the d-isomer of ritalin.

I know this thread is a bit old, but I just responded to another thread on this issue. To set this up, my son has been on some form of ADHD med since kindergarten (he is 13 now), and we have taken them ALL. He has been on 72 mg of Concerta for over a year and we have seen ever increasing levels of anxiety ever since. He had been on the Daytrana patch, which worked pretty well, but was real annoying. He is also taking Abilify for BP and in an effort to decrease the anxiety. We recently switched to Risperdal for the BP, even giving an extra .5 mg during the day, because it was also supposed to have an ancillary benefit for the anxiety, but things just got worse.

Just today, we switched to 20mg of Focalin XR with a 5mg booster of the Immeduiate release version at midafternoon. Jury still out, but early indications are positive. Will let ya'll know.

Are you taking any caffeine with your medications? This may be a cause of some anxiety. Definitely let your doctor know about your anxiety.

Im a 17yr old male and Concerta gives me more anxiety than Vyvanse.

Anxiety has always been one of my most obvious symptoms, and as I started stimulant medication a couple of months ago, everyone was looking for it to get worse.

Only it didn't. Not sure if it's doing anything for my focus, but finding myself able to, say, respond to someone accusing me of bigotry in a relatively calm and eloquent fashion is exhilarating, to say the least.

Anxiety has always been one of my most obvious symptoms, and as I started stimulant medication a couple of months ago, everyone was looking for it to get worse.

Only it didn't. Not sure if it's doing anything for my focus, but finding myself able to, say, respond to someone accusing me of bigotry in a relatively calm and eloquent fashion is exhilarating, to say the least.


It is kind of a thrill being able to think fast enough to say "I dont have to allow my buttons to be pushed" isn't it.

In general though Beta blockers may be helpful in blocking tremor and making yfeel less anxious, SSRIs are good for anxiety and have much less side effects than you might think from the publicity. Venlafaxine has stimulant and antianxietyproperties but withdrawing from is MUST be done slowly to avoid feeling awful.