My dr FINALLY agreed to try me on dextrostat (I had tried a friend's and found it to be very helpful!) Anyway, he prescribed only 10mgs BID!!!!! What the bleep?! 10mgs?! I definitely need at least 20mgs at a time, and I usually need it more than just TWICE a day! I have to ration them of course so that I don't run out too soon. But on the weekends I'm taking like 20mgs at least twice a day...otherwise I will sit on my behind all day! Why is my doctor being so stingy?! He's really buggin' me. Anyway, I was just curious to know how much others take. I don't know if it depends on weight like some meds, but I'm (UGH) almost 190lbs and 10mgs just is not cutting it! What about you?

Doctors are very careful with dexedrine - it's abused and it's got a stigma attached to it. My small-town pharmacist still seems a little "touchy" when it comes to filling my scrips for dexedrine - and it seems he only keeps one bottle in stock - twice he's had to give me a partial fill while he orders another bottle. Any Dr is going to start you off slowly - too much stimulant is worse than none at all - too much and it won't improve your focus and attention.
There are a lot of things for a Doctor to consider when prescribing dexedrine, like blood pressure, for example, so he's also going to want to see how you react to the drug before he gives you a larger dose.
10mg twice a day is not a tiny dose. I'm 260 lbs and I take 15mg three times a day. I was taking 15/15/10 but needed a little more in the evening. My Dr also started me at 10mg. I knew this was not going to be enough, since I was previously taking 30mg of ritalin 4 times a day, but you have to be patient - or the Doctor may suspect you're "drug seeking" and cut you off - so I took 10mg for two weeks and asked for 15mg the next visit, and that seems to work well for me.
You may well need more than 10mg to get the best treatment for your ADD, but you may find that you get the best effects from less than 20mg - after all, trying out a friend's prescription is not exactly a scientific method of figuring the best dose.
Oh, and I would really avoid using a word like "stingy" when talking about a Doctor's prescriptions - it has a negative connotaion and it makes it sound very much like you are drug seeking vs. just trying to find the best dose for your ADHD.
Regards,
Greg

I've tried ALMOST everything else. Ritalin worked pretty good...for a while. I was taking 20mgs twice, maybe 3 times a day...or the second dose would just be 10mgs...It varied depending on what I needed to accomplish day by day. As far as the doctor...he is just not very supportive. It's like...I don't know how to explain it. But I don't think he knows that much about ADD & the meds used to treat it. He insists that they are 'all the same'...meaning the stimulants. I know for a fact they are not. Sheesh, even the generic vs. name brands can work differently on the same person! I've been through all this with my son as well...the going back and forth with different meds, dosages...the usual. His doctor is willing to take suggestions and actually listen to what I have found out through extensive research on the subject. My doctor just looks at me like I'm nuts (poor choice of words, perhaps, sorry!) Anyway, he's been like this from the very beginning (like 3 years now.) You think he'd kinda know me by now. I've tried finding another dr, but unfortunately, the only ones available to me are in the same office as him. I would just feel too weird about that, ya know? I might have to up my Zoloft before doing THAT! LOL I guess stingy was not the best word to use, perhaps 'reluctant' is more appropriate. Anyway, it's not just the matter of the dosage that makes me think this way of him, it's a combination of everything I've just said, and just a general feeling about him. I don't know...like he doesn't believe me or something. It's just frustrating. I'll be glad when/if we can find something that works the way I need it to...then I can just go to my regular doctor for the refills. (My psychiatrist, the one I've been talking about, charges $10 to write out a prescription! So if I call and ask him to up the dosage, he will charge me $10 just to write it, then I gotta pay for the med on top of that. Needless to say, I do not call him before my next appointment for a refill. I'd rather pay the 20 bucks for a visit AND written prescription than 10 for the written prescription, 5 for the med, and then 20 2 weeks later for the visit.)

Oh, well...can you tell my meds have worn off? lol I'm just rambling rambling rambling.......

Right now I take 15 mg twice a day, I'm 148 lbs... works great, but if I take it too late in the day it keeps me awake once it runs out, like right now. I feel like running laps around the block and it's 4:18 am, I just hope I'll feel that way at 6:18 am........

addhill,

are you taking the slow release or quick release dexedrine? i tried 15 mg of the quick release kind today, and am feeling quite a bit more focused. the motivation hasn't kicked in though, i'm supposed to be running right now ... :rolleyes:

You (and particularly Gregster) seem quite knowledgeable on Dexedrine.

I just really have 1 question and that is, when taken properly and after an initial titration to work out dosage, what are your feelings for the percentage of Dexedrine users that experience a Tolerance for which a small change in dosage upwards cannot overcome. I realise that you're just working off your experience of moderating on these boards and that your figure will be very approximate -- I guess I'm just interested in knowing whether the figure is closer to 0, 50 or 100%.

If it's close to 100% - I may just give up the notion of medicating my ADD and try to learn to live with it.

I was taking the exact same dosage as you of standard Dex, but 4 months in, I lost my prescribing physician to retirement; it was still working well for me at this point.

I should also point out that the subject of whether and how frequently stimulant tolerance occurs, is the single most important subject to me **full-stop.**

I am scared to experience normality under Dexedrine, only for the rug to be pulled from beneath my feet.

I should mention that 5 months have elapsed since I stopped this medication, but that only a couple of weeks ago, I found a couple of tablets of Dex that were at the bottom of my medicine cabinet and only 10 mins after taking just 1 tablet, I began a 2.25 day period of clear thinking and focus.....which is remarkable given the very short half-life of standard Dexedrine.

Thanks,

SB.

addhill,

are you taking the slow release or quick release dexedrine? i tried 15 mg of the quick release kind today, and am feeling quite a bit more focused. the motivation hasn't kicked in though, i'm supposed to be running right now ... :rolleyes:
I'm on the fast-acting tablets, I take two 15 mg doses a day, this seems to last for a few hours and I've been on it since January and my tolerance hasn't gone up yet (knock on wood)

I take a 10mg spansule 1x a day (regularly), and when I'm studying 12-14 hrs/day on weekends for a test, I'll take 10mg 2x a day. I'm in between 100-110 lbs.

I've asked my doctor about the possibility of increasing my dosage, and she has told me that she doesn't want me to be taking dex on weekends at all (to give my body a rest), so when I need an extra kick to study for a big test, I should just take one of the pills that would be left over from those one of those "off weekends". While I see where she's coming from, it's a bit frustrating because I really can't afford to take off a lot of weekends as I'm in school 46 weeks/yr.

Anyway, I've never had problems with trying to fall asleep if I take dexedrine "too soon" before bedtime, but if it's late and I'm not trying to fall asleep then yes, it does keep me up longer. One of the perks of taking dex in the late afternoon/evening is that I have an easier time getting out of bed the next morning, haha.

-Net

I was taking 40mg of ritalin a day for a period of time, then noticed tics and a nervous habit of scratching my forearms to the point of creating sores. I asked my doctor to switch me to an equivalent dose of dex, which I suggested would be half the dose of ritaline, or 20 mg. Turned out to be a good "equivalency" ratio. 20 mg of dex spread over the day works well for me, without the tics and nervous scratching.

I don't believe that the percentage of people who develope tolerence to dexedrine is very high. People get used to some of the effects and these wane with time, but the effects on focus and such don't, generally. It could be that what people refer to when talking about tolerence is the diminishing of the "rush" you feel when taking it - your body gets used to the BP and CNS side effects? I know that people often take stimulants for years and years, and I don't think that they keep increasing the dosage!
I'm surprised that your doctor want you to take the weekends off "Hoop" - did she say why? I know that dexedrine helps me 7 days a week - whether it's helping me stay focused at work, or to get stuff done on the weekend around the house, or preventing me from binge eating or any other personal weakness related to poor impulse control! There are social implications for ADHD too - like when I can't control my loose tongue and say something that gets me into trouble. There are certainly lots of reasons why I take it on the weekends!

I was started off on one 15mg spansule a day... which was ok except I crashed really hard after about 5-6 hours and it made me quite tense... doctor then added a 5mg regular release for sometime in the afternoon but it still wasn't quite perfect.. I had a lot of anxiety and tension and "bad things" happened let us say.. Results would be great for about a week and then the paranoia, anxiety, suspiciousness, nightmares, insomnia would start.. So I took a few weeks off, tried again, same problem.. Turns out the problem was the initial 10mg dose that the 15mg spansule released was just too much for me.. Now I take a 10mg spansule in the morning and 5mg in the afternoon and the crash isn't so bad anymore... With the 10mg spansule at the 5mg level that it sustains me at I no longer "feel" the medication, I just know it's working by observing my behavior and mood.. however I'm already seeing tolerance develop. I mean... one of the reasons I am taking this is to counter the daytime fatigue that always hits me, however sometimes I start getting tired right AFTER I take the meds and the motivation just isn't there.. and it's only been a month since I've changed doses. And now the problem is, I am still not getting enough coverage. Due to my extremely fast metabolism, the dex kicks in about 5 minutes after I take it (regardless of stomach contents) and the 10mg spansule lasts maybe 4 hours at the most.. the 5mg about 2.. My doctor is wary about giving me more because of the trouble I had with a total of 20mg a day in the past with the 15mg+5.. he wants me to stick to 15mg a day, total... So basically.. I get decent coverage from about 9 am till 1pm... then I tough it out for about 2 hours, take the 5mg at 3 which is good until about 5pm, maybe 6... then I'm beat... this really does not help, considering I work a horrible teleresearch job where I have to stare at a computer screen and make phone calls from 2pm til 10pm, a lot of times I do end up taking more and have to ration just so I can get through work properly.. I've told the doctor that my previous problems were most likely due to my starting the day with too high of a dose, not due to the total that I take throughout the day, but he wants to play it safe... I've gotten to the point where I take the spansule and feel it drop out after like 30 minutes for maybe half an hour or so until the time release mechanism kicks in.. I'm getting ridiculously offtopic here.. but yes.. I hate having to time the things I do to these narrow windows throughout the day.. curse my metabolism... okay.. just venting now. hahaha..

I have found a book which partially helps with the problem of how much. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD at a local ADHD clinic. The books is:

"ADHD in Adulthood
A Guide to Current Theory, Diagnosis and Treatment"
Dr. Margaret Weiss M.D. Ph.D
Lily Trokenberg Hechtman m.D. C. M.
Gabrielle Weiss, M.d. C.M.
Johns Hopkins University Press © 1999

Margaret Weiss was the head psychiatrist on the team that diagnosed me. It carefully draws together most of the research about ADHD and treatment. The most helpful things in the book are the pages devoted to medications.

She gives suggested titration (how you move the doses up slowly) guides for Ritalin and Dexedrine and discusses expected side effects. She also deals with all the other drugs in use at publication time for ADHD. I have also found here extremely accurate in noting the length of time the drugs are really avtive vs the time the manufacturere claims. These are often different. She also notes several different ways she has found patients react to these drugs.

According to her medication guide for Dexedrine, dosages should not excede 50 mg perday or 0.5 mg/kg of body weight.

My doctor has been skeptical about ADHD in adults and has never treated the disorder in an adult before, though he did refer me to the clinic when I asked.

I have found it helpful to bring the book with me to my appointments with my doctor so I can point to accurate well respected published documentaion when I talk about what I think I should be taking.

However, I still wish my doctor had more experience treating ADHD and more understanding of how fast these drugs take effect (that is the reason for my question elsewhere in the Dexedrine thread).

I continue to be deeply troubled that I don't have access here in Vancouver to a psychiatrist who has experience in treating Adult ADHD.

Currently 30 mg. spansules, 110 lbs.

Currently 30 mg. spansules, 110 lbs.

Thank-you for posting that comment! I know doctors are conservative in their recomendations. I am just beginning treatment and I expect to have a few long discussions with my doctor about maximum doses and you have given me the kind of response that I can use effectively on a doctor inexperienced with treating ADHD and with stimulant medications.