For anyone who has been on both, have you noticed ANY differences, whether good or bad? If so, please list what those differences are.

For me...

Negative-

The Barr aren't nearly as effective. I take 25mg and I get less symptom control than I did with Shire's 20mg. I'm much more foggy and have a hard time talking to people. It takes a lot of effort and concentration to make sure I'm saying things in a way that other people understand.

I mumble a lot. Not that I really intend people to hear what I'm saying, but I should be thinking those things to myself instead of mumbling them under my breath. People are constantly going "What? Did you just say something?"

They only last about 5-6 hours instead of the 8 I was getting with Shire.

More side effects:

My dry mouth is ten times worse and gives me really bad breath despite my enormous intake of water. I give myself a stomach ache trying to wet my mouth and throat.

Much more strange visual stuff. Shadows, spots, flashes of light.

Insomnia. Never had a problem on Shire but with Barr I end up laying there forever before I fall asleep. I'm getting bags under my eyes from not sleeping enough. :(

Upset stomach. .

Positive-

No more intense urges to eat constantly. YAY!

This one's odd and unexpected, but I have a much more accurate body image. :confused: I've always had a distorted view of my body. Even at my lowest weight (125 lbs, size 5) I still thought I looked chubby. I eventually accepted that I was never going to look the way I thought I should look and realized I wasn't seeing myself properly. It didn't make me feel better knowing that, but it made it easier to ignore those "fat" feelings. It's gotten a bit better with age, but since starting the Barr XR, at 170 lbs and a size 12, I think I look great! I put on clothes that fit my figure and feel good about myself. I NEVER thought I would feel this way and it's fantastic! I love myself now!

I don't want to go back to Shire's expensive XR and have those food cravings again, but I hate that Barr isn't as effective. Idon't know if it's just me, but if anyone else has noticed a difference, please post it!

Thanks everyone :D

I am glad I found this forum. I was trying to check the ingredients in both to see if they are supposed to be exactly the same.

The generic doesn't work for me. It has really affected my mood and my ability to get things done. I brought a DAW prescription to my pharmacy yesterday and they had to fax some paperwork for my provider to fill in or it would have cost me $400. So I am still on the generic. I took an extra one today and at least it seems to be helping somewhat. I hope there aren't any snags in getting the regular ones. I would love to be able to take the generic and cut down on my expenses but no luck. This is the first time this has happened to me where the generic doesn't work. I think the generic caught my provider by surprise too. Is it supposed to be dose for dose? I take 2, 20mg pills every morning. I am finding it hard to get details on the generic. I also have had headache for last 2 days but I am not sure that is related. Shammy14:confused:

Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought Shire was still manufacturing the med for Barr, until some future switchout date. If this is the case there shouldn't be any difference and it is the same med as the name brand. In my opinion, I think it is a joke to call the med a generic, I pay only $5.00 less than the name brand with my Ins policy. I thought generic meant cheaper! I feel somewhat duped as my insurance carrier mandates the generic.

Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought Shire was still manufacturing the med for Barr, until some future switchout date. If this is the case there shouldn't be any difference and it is the same med as the name brand. In my opinion, I think it is a joke to call the med a generic, I pay only $5.00 less than the name brand with my Ins policy. I thought generic meant cheaper! I feel somewhat duped as my insurance carrier mandates the generic.

I had also read somewhere on this forum that Shire was manufacturing for Barr, which is why the big difference in how I responded to them caught me by surprise. I started this post because I wasn't sure if it really was the generics or just me. I guess I'll never know unless I try Shire's again. Might have to do that next time.

I can't believe it's only $5 cheaper for you. Mine went from $40 down to $10 (Walgreens) so I'd really like to stay with the generics.

I am glad I found this forum. I was trying to check the ingredients in both to see if they are supposed to be exactly the same.

The generic doesn't work for me. It has really affected my mood and my ability to get things done. I brought a DAW prescription to my pharmacy yesterday and they had to fax some paperwork for my provider to fill in or it would have cost me $400. So I am still on the generic. I took an extra one today and at least it seems to be helping somewhat. I hope there aren't any snags in getting the regular ones. I would love to be able to take the generic and cut down on my expenses but no luck. This is the first time this has happened to me where the generic doesn't work. I think the generic caught my provider by surprise too. Is it supposed to be dose for dose? I take 2, 20mg pills every morning. I am finding it hard to get details on the generic. I also have had headache for last 2 days but I am not sure that is related. Shammy14:confused:

I've been getting a lot of headaches lately too, but I go through bouts of bad headaches so I just assumed I was in for another round like usual. They've gotten way better since I started the Adderall but maybe the generics are causing mine too. I hate this. It's so frustrating.

I've been on the generic XR for 2 days now. It's definitely cheaper - $8 compared to $22.

Yesterday I came down with a terrible ear infection and today I had a migraine with aura. I doubt either are related to generic XR (at least I hope not!!)

I'm going to try the generic for at least a couple of weeks.

If Shire is manufacturing for Barr- that doesn't mean that Barr has the same fillers.

I just switch to Shire XR, due to the fact that my Barr Generic Instant Release and Barr Brand- both had the same effects. They didn't work like the original Shire Adderall, in fact they gave me the worst crashes, headaches, I am prescribed 10mg (2x's) and sometimes if I took a 10mg in the AM, with a full stomach, they would hit really hard and then die off- other times it was like nothing, except a huge headache. They don't last as long, and the irritability, lack of focus, sometimes feeling worse- was enough-

So now I am on Shire XR- I just filled my script and will not use the Barr. I honestly feel that more people need to complain about Barr and whatever they are using for fillers. The fillers are the worst, my Doc even says that when it comes to scripts for the proper function of the brain, that they shouldn't be messing around with the scripts- they should be identical, right down to the fillers.

People don't understand that yes it's the same in active ingredients as they call them, but Active ingredients-"An active ingredient (AI), also active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or bulk active, is the substance in a drug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medication) that is pharmaceutically active (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutically_active)."

I also found this on another board- "Actually, the fillers/binders in generic meds do not have to be the same as the name brand, or any other generic on the market at all.

If you do a search for my post on here, with info about the law on generic meds from the FDA, you will see that even the active ingredient can differ in generics by as much as plus or minus 20%, which for some drugs can be a very significant difference. The main ingredient in generics also DOES NOT have to be identical, they only have to prove it is bioequivelent to what was in the name brand, so it works the same way in the body and does the same stuff.

So yes, generics can be significantly different from the name brands, and one generic can differ significantly from the other.

Many people are under the mistaken assumption that these differences only apply to the inactive ingredients, but that is just not true.

The FDA has allowed this to occur in an effort to get generic meds on the market faster and to keep them cheaper. They do not make this public knowledge, and your doctor (http://www.drugs.com/forum/#) and pharmacist are NOT allowed to tell you this, because they reason that they do not want to scare people away from taking needed meds. If they tell you anything other than generics are exactly the same, they can, legally under the law, lose their license to practice.

I hunted up my other post for you, that includes the information and the link to the law that permits this to happen, I will just paste it in here for you all to read, I am most definitely not making this up!

"Some people have disagreed with me when I explained about the 20% plus or minus difference that the FDA allows for generic drugs, some have insisted this was only for the inactive ingredients. So I have done some more research on this subject, and NO! the 20% difference IS NOTjust limited to the inactive ingredients.

Here's an article with some information, and the name of the law that allows this:

http://counsellingresource.com/medic.../generics.html (http://counsellingresource.com/medications/discount-drugs/generics.html)

***"Are There Any Differences Between Generics and Brand-Name Drugs?

...it should be noted that current regulations permit a variation of up to 20% either way in the bioavailability of the active ingredient. (See this Food and Drug Law Institute overview of the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1999.) In one study (Borgheini 2003), a 31% variation was found in the blood plasma levels of a particular medication after a patient switched from a branded to a generic product. (Why does this happen? It may be accounted for by differences in the manufacturing process yielding different particle sizes that are absorbed at different rates, as well as other factors.) "***

So yes, this gives them a leeway of 40% on manufacturing these drugs, they can be significantly different than their name brand counterparts, and in some cases the effect can mean a drug doesn't work at all, or may have too much of the active ingredient, resulting in serious effects or even fatalities!
<hr>

Here's the overview of the law in question that allows these differences:

http://www.fdli.org/pubs/Journal%20Online/54_2/art2.pdf




verwon@gmail.com

http://www.drugs.com/forum/pharmacists/generic-ingredients-medications-36231.html


I hope this helps some, I just ran across it when I was looking for something else- and wanted to share it.

I def think they are different when it come to the Barr IR for generic and Brand- now that they manufacture both, and all Barr is actually Teva- which is only generics.

It's not the actual active ingredient that can different by 20% - it's the bio-availability of the active ingredient that can vary by 20%. But same difference right? Either you're getting the same dose or you're not.

In my case, I take 20 mg of XR in the morning and 10 mg XR at noon. So with the generic I could end up taking anywhere from 18 - 22 mg in the morning and 9 - 11 mg at noon. Not really that big of a difference.

I really hope the generic turns out to be okay. My insurance is covering it at the lowest copay ($8) and starting next month will be covering the name brand at the highest ($42.) I don't know about y'all, but $16 a month is a lot better than $84!

yeah, the price is nice, but not worth it if there's no good symptom control.

I dread going back to Shire and feeling like I need to eat every hour, but I had way better results with controlling my ADD. I'm really torn. I might try one more month of Barr's, maybe at a higher dose to see if that helps, otherwise I might just stick with Shire's until some other manufacturers can jump on the wagon.

I've now been on generic Adderall XR for about 5 days. It's NOT the same as the name brand.

It's not as smooth. I can really feel it coming on and I feel light headed all day. I'm able to focus on projects for a much shorter period of time and I'm quite scattered. I really have to force myself to pay attention and stay on one thing.

I really don't want to pay $84 a month for my medication, but it looks like I'm going to have to.

Barr adderall might be the worst version of a generic med ive ever tried, it was possibly the worst anxiogenic medication ive ever ingested. i actually did not take my whole prescription because of the terrible side effects that were mainly PNS related :anxiety, nervous, slight "paranoia", rapid heart, undesirable hyperfocus that had dysphoria attached to it. it was definitely an effective stimulant, but not an effective medication

Shire adderall XR ive tried once, less harsh than barr adderall, but there were still some of the side effects as above,not as pronounced though. i still wouldnt have this prescription filled, and i then asked to switch to dextroamphetamine, as ive read the negative side effects are mostly due to levoamphetamine and the racemic salts.

good choice. ive also tried shire dextrostat and barr dexedrine.

shire dextrostat is potent. to compare a barr 10mg to a shire 10mg instant release dexamphetamine is almost like comparing Dextroamphetamine to Adderall (all four salts) in general.

The shire 10mg dex is smoother and definitely stronger than The barr dex 10mg. the barr somehow still hits PNS stimulation and im not sure why, it might be a problem with the pills i got (maybe bad production, perhaps a mistake like ethex had and they threw in some levoamp, i dont know).

anyway, after trying shire adderall xr and dextrostat and barr (IR) adderall and dex, shire seems to be a better quality product.

however, i will have to admit that barr 5mg dexedrine (generic instant release) is by far the best ADHD med ive tried to date, it might be smoother than dextrostat actually (but im also on a different combo of meds since my shire days)

but in any case....ill take barr 5mg dex over anything (because of insurance price and effectiveness without side effects). if you decide to try any extended release dexedrine (not vyvanse), i beleive you have the option between barr and GSK spansules, and though i havent tried GSK since no one carris anything but barr generics, id guess they are close.

to close my post: based on what you've said, i highly recommend trying barr dextroamphatmine 5mg pills (not 10mgs), or any generic dextroamphetamine spansule. the side effects should be substanitally less, as i found switchin from adderall to dex. the only thing you would want to consider is the spansule is 6 hours of coverage, and the IR is 4, so its basically the difference between dosing twice or thrice a day. i prefer IR personally, and it keeps me on top of my focus as well by paying attention to time, nutritional habits, and basically scheduling. (i will never try vyvanse, the only XR i would take are the dex spansules)

Hope this helps and Good luck

if you decide to try any extended release dexedrine (not vyvanse), i beleive you have the option between barr and GSK spansules, and though i havent tried GSK since no one carris anything but barr generics, id guess they are close.

to close my post: based on what you've said, i highly recommend trying barr dextroamphatmine 5mg pills (not 10mgs), or any generic dextroamphetamine spansule. the side effects should be substanitally less, as i found switchin from adderall to dex. the only thing you would want to consider is the spansule is 6 hours of coverage, and the IR is 4, so its basically the difference between dosing twice or thrice a day. i prefer IR personally, and it keeps me on top of my focus as well by paying attention to time, nutritional habits, and basically scheduling. (i will never try vyvanse, the only XR i would take are the dex spansules)

Hope this helps and Good luck

I didn't know that dex came in XR form.

My doctor is completely against IR meds (don't even get me started on that one!!!) but I wonder if he would freak out if I asked about the dex spansules. Anyone know if doctors consider them to be more "addictive" or "abusable" than Adderall XR? I hate to even bring things up with my doc in case of another blow out. :mad: P!sses me off that I can't even broach certain subjects with him.

yes Dexedrine spansules are extended release dextroamphetamine,seem to be less common in general, not sure why, but yes there is Dex XR, and from what it sounds like with ur adderall generic, you would get longer and better (less anxious) coverage from a dex spansule.

ur sig says u get 5mg ir adderall, which i assume is a limited quanity of boosters when XR might wear off or u need a bit more, right? if so, ask for 5mg dex instead....start there if u think thats a middle ground with ur doctor. then you can tell him the next time that the effects were better (if you think they are) and you would like the dex spansules with dex ir boosters instead of adderall Xr and adderall ir booster.

remember its your body, your treatment, and you have to really feel comfortable with ur meds.

if ud like, print out some articles (some posts even on here) that show how dex's lack of the other 3 salts, especially levoamphetamine, greatly reduces PNS effects and anxiety, which you would like lessened, and from there ask for Dex.

actually, one of my stupid quacks that i went to * didnt even know about dex till i asked, and im glad i did. dont be afraid to tell your psych what you want and ur concenrs.

*(i stopped seeing this quack after 2 visits, his evaluation of $350 consisted of asking me in nearly unintelligble english why i thought i had adhd and why i wanted to be treated at this point in my life, immediately after which he asked which adhd med I wanted to try, this took 5 minutes and i had a script for serious controlled substance, this was my first hint....anwya after getting barr adderall from him, i quickly searched online, found dex as a potential problem solver, printed out the pharmacological difference and effect, brought it in to him and though hes an ADHD "specialist" hes never heard of it but he prescribed it immediately...again within 5 minutes. i found that it worked, which was great, but i had to swtich doctors because he tried to charge me a reavulation fee of $350 when i left the state for 2 months during summer vacation...as if in 2 months i lost my adhd diagnosis. i really dislike that man, hes not a doctor at all, and be careful with doctors that do not take your opions or concerns in mind, ITS YOUR BODY, you must decide what medicine you want, the doctors job is to make sure it is safe)

My doctor is completely against IR meds (don't even get me started on that one!!!) but I wonder if he would freak out if I asked about the dex spansules. I hate to even bring things up with my doc in case of another blow out. :mad: P!sses me off that I can't even broach certain subjects with him.

Actually you know what T, you should get another psych. if you cant even discuss options with him like this (and im guessing you are an adult over 21), then you should find someone who will. ive been through about 10 therapists/psychologists and 5 psychiatrists before i found the right one, and he listens and works with me. so many doctors, psychs especially, are very very egoistic and these think they are in a superior position to their patients so they dont wanna hear what u gota say. they follow their own protocol/regimens and its formulaic for every patient. if u have such and such symptons, you get formula a, if you have other symptoms u get forumla b.... you have the right to request options and explanations and try stuff. its funny, thats the most annoying part about psychatric meds (you know finding the right one), and experimenting, and this guys not even trying.

do yaself a favor, get another psych. i hope you can try my dexsuggestion (if it sounds good to you) good luck

Actually you know what T, you should get another psych. if you cant even discuss options with him like this (and im guessing you are an adult over 21), then you should find someone who will. ive been through about 10 therapists/psychologists and 5 psychiatrists before i found the right one, and he listens and works with me. so many doctors, psychs especially, are very very egoistic and these think they are in a superior position to their patients so they dont wanna hear what u gota say. they follow their own protocol/regimens and its formulaic for every patient. if u have such and such symptons, you get formula a, if you have other symptoms u get forumla b.... you have the right to request options and explanations and try stuff. its funny, thats the most annoying part about psychatric meds (you know finding the right one), and experimenting, and this guys not even trying.

do yaself a favor, get another psych. i hope you can try my dexsuggestion (if it sounds good to you) good luck

Believe me, I know I need a new doc! I recently went to someone else and it was not a good experience. I'm giving myself some time before I try again, but I WILL try again.

My past history is very long and complicated and I absolutely loathe having to go through it every single time I see someone new. I know it needs to be done, but it's so draining that I can only endure it occasionally. My childhood was beyond traumatic and telling them every detail is like living it all over again. :( Not something I look forward to.

I was doing pretty good on Shire's XR, so if he freaks when I ask about the dex spansules I'll probably just ask for Shire brand XR again.

So, once again, if anyone has a suggestion for a decent doc (psychiatrist) in the Milwaukee area, I'm DYING to hear about it!! :D I'm willing to travel quite far for the right doc.

Thanks again for your suggestions Yellow. I appreciate it.

I haven't really noticed a difference between the new generic formulation of mixed amphetamine salts and Shire Adderall XR. I've been on it for about 20+ days. But then again, I haven't had much of an issue with Barr's generic IR either. While I've had better generics, so far the Barr has been acceptable.

The generic XR is very expensive right now. Some pharmacies put the actual cost of the medication on your receipt, and for me, it was about the same as the brand name version was about 6 months ago (before Shire increased the prices recently).

No problem, i wanna just help even out, even if its just a bit or not even useful at all, for the very simply reason that it was this forum (members sharing information, experiences, medicine trials, etc...) that i was able to finally get the medication that helps me. i feel better than i ever have. so good luck with everything and if you ever wanna ask a specific question dont hesitate to PM me.