I was reading some old thread and saw someone say that meds induce a "fight or flight" reaction. Is this true? Do these medications work by giving you a stress response (or unintentionally do)? Do they cause you to release cortisol and other stress hormones? I'd be grateful for some information about this.


Thanks!

Many of the ADHD medications work by releasing and/or blocking the re-uptake of norepinephrine, a key stress hormone/neurotransmitter...

I do not have a good understand of this, so I thought I'd references some key terms to give you an answer, followed by some of my ideas.

Sympathomimetics are apparently a subcategory of stimulants.

Sympathomimetic: Producing physiological effects resembling those caused by the activity or stimulation of the sympathetic nervous systemAnswers.com

Sympathomimetic: Sympathomimetic drugs are substances that mimic the effects of the catecholamines epinephrine (adrenaline), norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and/or dopamine.wikpedia.com

Sympathetic Nervous System: The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is a branch of the autonomic nervous system along with the enteric nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system. It is always active at a basal level (called sympathetic tone) and becomes more active during times of stress. Its actions during the stress response comprise the fight-or-flight response.wikipedia.com

Here's from the Mallinckrodt dextroamphetamine prescribing information regarding cortisol:
Drug/Laboratory Test Interactions
• Amphetamines can cause a significant elevation in plasma corticosteroid levels. This
increase is greatest in the evening.
• Amphetamines may interfere with urinary steroid determinations.mallinckrodt.com

I think it is certainly plausible that they work partially by activating the sympathetic nervous system to treat ADHD. The responses of increased blood pressure, and blood glucose caused by other stress hormones will definitely have an effect on the CNS.

Imagine if you wanted to synthesize a very powerful stimulant effecting the whole nervous system; how would you do it? You'd probably quickly realize that the hormones epinephrine, and norepinephrine don't cross the blood brain barrier, and thus may not have a direct effect on the CNS, though they would have an effect peripheral to the CNS. So you could synthesize a substance structurally similar to ephinephrine that crosses the blood brain barrier, and thus exerts direct CNS effects, as well as activating the sympathetic nervous system. The result is an extremely powerful stimulant. The arcytypal stimulant that does this would be amphetamine. Another stimulant that crosses the blood brain barrier even better, and may even be more specific to the CNS is methamphetamine.

Ritalin is also a sympathomimetic that crosses the blood brain barrier to my understanding.

Maybe future stimulants for ADHD will be more specific to the CNS, and exert less effects on the sympathetic nervous system. Or maybe we already have some, but they exert such a powerful effect making them abusable, e.g., methamphetamine.

I remember when I was a child and plagued with asthma, on a couple of occasions I was given an injection of something that made my heart start pounding and I got "really happy" afterwards, and it also made me very hyper. Of course it also made breathing a lot easier and thus relieved the asthma symptoms.

Only recently did I learn this was probably epinephrine, or adrenaline.

I wonder if pure epinephrine could have a beneficial effect on ADHD?

yea, wed all have heart attacks and not have to worry about the adhd anymore! yay! :P

I wonder if pure epinephrine could have a beneficial effect on ADHD?

I was given a small dosage as a local anesthetic. It is possible it had some mild effect, or that could have been due to the shock of getting my tooth pulled out :p.

Walgreens ephedrine (http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100092&navAction=jump&navCount=0&nug=VPD&skuid=sku352730&id=prod352729)
It looks OTC...

Thanks for all the responses guys!

Epinephrine not phychoactive so it wont help adhd symptoms. It increases blood sugar, heartrate, and gets your body ready for action. It also shuts down unnecessary things for short term survival like your immune system, sex drive, and digestion.

BobC