without breaking the time release beads inside. 20 mg seems like way too much for me compared to the slower releasing vyvanse.I have had 30,40,and 60mg vyvanse before being switched to adderall because I did not get all day coverage from any dose of vyvanse.I even tried splitting the vyvanse powder into water and dividing up the water into halves and thirds, it did not work very well so I requested 5 mg dexedrine IR 2x a day and 40 mg vyvanse. The doctor didnt want to have anything to do with this. She would not listen to my reasoning for my request. so ... I need to be able to split a 20 mg capsule in half or better yet thirds.
Adderall, taken whole, gives me headaches bad on one 20mg per day. vyvanse did not,
BP and HR are fine. Also adderall gives me extra anxiety much like wellbutrin did while I was taking it with vyvanse. Must be the norepinephrine from the Levo-amphetamine in Adderall. Wellbutrin,in addition to dopamine, is a norepinephrine Re-uptake inhibitor.
Thanks

without breaking the time release beads inside. 20 mg seems like way too much for me compared to the slower releasing vyvanse.I have had 30,40,and 60mg vyvanse before being switched to adderall because I did not get all day coverage from any dose of vyvanse.I even tried splitting the vyvanse powder into water and dividing up the water into halves and thirds, it did not work very well so I requested 5 mg dexedrine IR 2x a day and 40 mg vyvanse. The doctor didnt want to have anything to do with this. She would not listen to my reasoning for my request. so ... I need to be able to split a 20 mg capsule in half or better yet thirds.
Adderall, taken whole, gives me headaches bad on one 20mg per day. vyvanse did not,
BP and HR are fine. Also adderall gives me extra anxiety much like wellbutrin did while I was taking it with vyvanse. Must be the norepinephrine from the Levo-amphetamine in Adderall. Wellbutrin,in addition to dopamine, is a norepinephrine Re-uptake inhibitor.
Thanks

I think you are asking for trouble here. A MUCH easier solution would just be to ask your doctor for a lower proscription of XR. If you do not think this would give you the time coverage you need, you could also ask for a "booster" IR for the afternoon. This XR + IR is quite common.

well obviously you did not read my post in vyvanse forum...
I did ask for a small 5 mg dexedrine or adderall IR (having now taken adderall and enjoyed all the wonderfully putrid side effects....would have preferred the dexedrine) booster 2 times a day along with the vyvanse 40 mg that seemed to have the best effect but lacked coverage. A drop from the 60 mg vyvanse she RX me last month.
now I am stuck with this adderall XR prescription I hate and I have to learn to deal adjust to it until next month. my doctor was down right adamant against my idea of a IR booster with 40 mg vyvanse. Even one as small as 5mg IR 2 times a day. Don't ask me why...
What I have done was use to small shot glasses identical sizes and eyed the amounts and put them back in to gelatin capsules.

In addition the doctor herself told me to split the 20 mg up if I needed to :eek:
but thanks for your opinion.

Vyvanse is supposed to last 12 hours (I've never taken it, so I don't know if this claim is true or not), and Adderall XR realistically last 6-8 hours max. It could be your Dr. didn't want to boost your vyvanse b/c its supposed to last 12 hours. She might (or might not) be for a booster for XR, since is does last less time.

I know you said you hated the side effects of Adderall, but what about just getting plain IR two or three times a day? You could take the same total mgs, but not have to split open your XR. What you are doing now is almost the same thing anyway.

It is a bit odd your Dr. just told you to split open your XR instead of addressing your actual problems with the medicine. Maybe a new doctor or specialist would serve you best.

I think the doctor was mixing up the IR and the XR. The IR pill has cross shaped scoring so you can split it into halves or fourths very easily and safely. The XR is a capsule that you should not open up at all.

I think the doctor was mixing up the IR and the XR. The IR pill has cross shaped scoring so you can split it into halves or fourths very easily and safely. The XR is a capsule that you should not open up at all.

She told me the XR could be divided up and put into something like applesauce or pudding. as long as the beads are not broken up they retain the slow release properties.

I was only getting effects from vyvanse from 9:30-10 AM to 3 PM on a 60 mg
vyvanse dose taken at 6:50 AM . The doctor did not believe me (she drew me a graph like I was an idiot) the peak of vyvanse at 60 mg was more than I cared for or needed hence the request for a drop back down to 40 mg and 2 IR boosters. one I can take in the AM until vyvanse kicked in and one I can take in the afternoon without making me stay up to watch Conan O'brien if I wanted to or not. Otherwise I was falling asleep at 8 or so .The first day of adderall taken as stated on the bottle "take one in AM and a second one at 2pm. That gave me 2 hours from 3-5 of absurd overstimulation to the point I could do nothing. The second day of adderall I took only one 20 mg XR at 7 am and I fell asleep at 820 pm.
I called my doctor today but the office is closed on mondays, apparently she works at the local hospital on some days except thursday. When she sees patients in a private practice.. I am going to try again tomorrow.

When I first started adderall XR, my doctor wrote the script for the 20 mg caps. He told me to start with just 10 mg a day for a few days before titrating up. He said to open the capsule and pour half out, or to pour half of it on some applesauce (or yogurt) and swallow it.

The following bit is from the Adderall XR Prescribing Information off the fda.gov website -


"ADDERALL XR<SUP>™ capsules may be taken whole, or the capsule may be opened and the entire contents sprinkled on applesauce. If the patient is using the sprinkle administration method, the sprinkled applesauce should be consumed immediately; it should not be stored. Patients should take the applesauce with sprinkled beads in its entirety without chewing. The dose of a single capsule should not be divided. The contents of the entire capsule should be taken, and patients should not take anything less than one capsule per day. "</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
<SUP>It does say to not divide the dose, but if your doctor is telling you to do this at least you know you can take it with applesauce or something if you need to. It would have been nice for your doctor to give you some tips on how he meant for you to do that.
</SUP>

Vyvanse is supposed to last 12 hours (I've never taken it, so I don't know if this claim is true or not), and Adderall XR realistically last 6-8 hours max. It could be your Dr. didn't want to boost your vyvanse b/c its supposed to last 12 hours. She might (or might not) be for a booster for XR, since is does last less time.

I know you said you hated the side effects of Adderall, but what about just getting plain IR two or three times a day? You could take the same total mgs, but not have to split open your XR. What you are doing now is almost the same thing anyway.

It is a bit odd your Dr. just told you to split open your XR instead of addressing your actual problems with the medicine. Maybe a new doctor or specialist would serve you best.

I just got the adderall on thrusday. I have seen posts from many people that use IR boosters with vyvanse. not everyone metabolizes vyvanse the same.:)
some take multiple doses of vyvanse per day as well. I have seen one guy take 2 70mg doses of vyvanse on this forum. the point in my case was 60 mg vyvanse divided up into 2 -30 mg doses and everything in between did not increase the coverage.

I agree it would have been nice .. I think I have it figured out.
I would like to see who else divides the capsule XR form of Adderall... show of hands??

You can purchase vegetable capsules at your local health food store, and split one Adderall capsule into two.

I have seen those before.. my son takes vyvanse , I use his empty capsule.
he has autism and will not swallow tablets or capsule medications.
Thanks:)

well my doctor finally called me about my palpitations I have been having over the last year. Yet I only started ADD meds in January. When I came down with a sinus infection, the ENT doctor gave me mucinex-D (sudafed) and prednisone as well as antibiotics.
this sent my heart through the roof. I stopped taking everything except prednisone (because you have to wean off of it not stop suddenly) and my heart still kept me awake at night.. pounding 24 hours a day. After a holter monitor for 24 hours was used , Doc said my heart is in good shape but I have an extra beat now and then.
so I get an RX for for a b1 beta blocker metoprolol. WOW . no more papls. I can sleep at night much better. I can tolerate the Adderall much better after switching from vyvanse. . Anxiety is way down. and I dont get nervousness from the adderall anymore. ( never did on vyvanse) I take a whole 20mg adderall XR in the AM and split the afternoon dose to 10 mg and re encapsulate. I get all day coverage and still able to get to sleep at a reasonable time. I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER WITHOUT palpitations.
Everyone should get there heart checked out if they have palpitations with their ADD meds. ( I have had my heart checked several times before some surgery and everything was fine then.. ) Anywho.. just an update.
Thanks everyone!

I know I'm a little late on the uptake here but I was also told by my doc that I could split the pill in half if I felt it was too much. I have only done it once because I didn't want to take my dose in the morning and I thought it would help me sleep if I just took a lower dose later in the day.

It was a pain to pour out half the pill. I ended up spilling it all over my counter and floor. Talk about stupid. I was crawling around on my hands and knees trying to pick up tiny, nearly invisible orange beads to salvage as much as I could and keep my son from finding any and ingesting it. I won't be doing that again!

I pour over a white bowl while dividing up the dose..
what dose do you take in the afternoon if you don't mind me asking?
10-15 of XR is good for me but 20 mg of XR is too much in the PM
thanks

I pour over a white bowl while dividing up the dose.. that's what I did too, but the capsule slipped out of my fingers and flew onto the counter instead of in the bowl like it was supposed to. :rolleyes:


what dose do you take in the afternoon if you don't mind me asking?
10-15 of XR is good for me but 20 mg of XR is too much in the PM
thanks

I usually take 10 before 3 pm if I take a later dose.

I'm hoping to switch to IR for the purpose of having better control over my meds. The XR is such a roller coaster for me. I'm up and down all day with it.

For me, I think that if I could take a bigger dose (15 - 20 IR) in the morning and then just nibble on small doses throughout the day, it would suit me better.

One downside to Adderall that I dont get on vyvanse is I forget to eat during the day.

I used to split 10mg addreall xr into two gel capsules. My son was prescribed the 10 mg to start with but it was too strong for him. So we split it and he had extra since he was only taking half.

When we went back to the psyciatrist I told him how we were splitting them and he said that was fine. He didn't seemed alarmed by it. Thankfully Adderall came out with a 5 mg dose so I don't have the annoying process of spliting them anymore. It was kinda annoying to split them becasue sometimes if my hands were'nt steady enough I would spill them.

Another thing to mention about those little beads in the pills is some are immediate release and some are time released. So if I happened to get more of one kind of beads in one pill then he didn't have even results throughout the day. So it is better to not have to split them because of that too.

thats a good point about some being time release and some not. I will have to make sure they are throughly mixed. yesterdays afternoon dose was a bit too much . I was up till after midnight before I feel asleep.
Thanks for the info

One downside to Adderall that I dont get on vyvanse is I forget to eat during the day.

I'm the opposite. I can eat like crazy on Adderall but on Vy I have absolutely no appetite.

funny how that is .. I was actually eating more on vyvanse than no ADD med, and forgetting about food completely on adderall. Until I start to feel the effects of the lack of food. smack myself in the head and eat something !.

To anyone who has opened a capsule: Do all the beads look the same or is there a difference between the IR and ER beads?

from what I can tell they all look the same.