Difference Between Adderall And Amphetamine Salts (Page 9) (Top voted first)

I was recently diagnosed with Adult ADD and have been prescribed Amphetamine Salts (Generic for Adderall) for a few months now. The initial dosage was one 10mg tablet/ three times a day and recently my Doctor upped the dosage to one 30mg tablet/ twice a day. I know that overall this has been very beneficial for me but I cant help but wonder if the generic brand (IR Amphetamine Salts) has less of the active ingredient, and more unnecessary side effects(irritability, fatigue). I know that while the active ingredients are likely to be the same, the "fillers" usually are not and even the active ingredients can vary up to 10%. I also know that everybody reacts differently depending on their bodies' make-up as well as the drugs and I have always reacted sensitively to any kind of drug. The more I "google" the more I want to stay away from the generic form. Also- almost every pharmacy around has little to no Adderall Brand IR tablets in stock, they only have the generic brands and possibly Adderall brand but only the Extended-Release. My Doctor seems to firmly believe that there is no difference between Adderall XR and Adderall IR, and because she prescribed me the generic form (Amphetamine Salts), she probably doesn't see a difference there either. I don't have the time to ask 10 doctors what they think so if anyone has any information or experiences please share! Thank you!

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Kudos Sarah on the early graduation and your achievements. I am almost done with my B.S. in Biology (minor psychology) and just recently started taking Adderall. I have a problem with my energy levels and my heart rate is usually always below 60 with a blood pressure of 102/54ish. I suffer from anemia and hypothyroid so we are giving this a try to see if it helps with energy levels. It is hard struggling through school when one is constantly lacking energy to stay awake enough to finish a chapter out of a text book. I am a 4.0 GPA but golly, did I earn every A I have received....hours upon hours of reading the same chapter over and over because I was unable to focus on the content. I totally get what you are saying.

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Can you in the first place prove that God made anyone, and in the second place, if your God is so loving and forgiving why would it "make" anyone with these conditions. Perhaps you could try standing up straight, thus pulling your head out of your *^#!@ and show a little respect for others instead of minimizing how they feel by blaming their illnesses on fairytale creatures!

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Hi. i went thru what i'm hearing many on this drug are talking about. I went to my local Walmart and had my 20 mg of "Ampheta S/Combo", the generic form i'm normally used to and are oval, light orange-ishand they seem to work fine over a few yrs. Went to a Walmart again and the med was the same, the same Walmart but, those pills were white and round and seemed ok. Recently was filling the same med at a Walmart 30 min. from me and it was the oval and sort of flat and labled the same as the 1st one i mentioned in the start of this. The white one is labled different though! I forgot what it said...it was something like "Amphetamine... ... ...."(don't recall the full name). No biggie...BUT....i had a generic 20 mg Adderall at Walgreens and they were small and round and light orange and didn't work at all! Odd thing is, a person i know who's taking the 10 mg generic Adderall got her script filled at a Walgreens and her's was not working! Her pills at Walgreens were the same shape, just light blue in color. I don't get it! The ADHD is so frustrating first off all, let alone all the fillers or whatever else the FDA allows to be sold in our USA prescribed drug pharmacies. I used to live close to the TX/US border and get meds across the border. Funny how so many americans are brainwashed by themselves, or somebody else and told to not trust Mexico meds stating things like, "you may get harsh chemicals, etc. in the meds". They got it all backwards....i'm more prone to get meds in another country this day in age...based on my personal experience and reading the many post topics like what's on here, and this is about just Adderall! I'm glad i don't have to play "head games" w/my search for proper meds by my own trial and error at diff american pharmacies just to be able to get the right chemicals, etc. in ALL my prescribed meds! It's really a rat race! So many kids need it for school, etc. Imagine what they're feeling and not knowing how to verbalize that to parents, teachers, etc. !! They would feel a bit "different" but not really be able to pinpoint that it was crappy medication!!!

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There is indeed a huge difference between XR and reg. Adderall tabs. I have been prescribed adderall for the past eight years because of a terrible sleep disorder (at the worst i would sleep for 5 days straight without even getting up to use the bathroom - kidneys hurt all the time, etc.) so i've been prescribed all diff. types. I was originally prescribed XR. These are the huge differences that I found that caused me to switch to the tabs (but, like you mentioned, every body is different): 1. I could not ride as a passenger in a car without getting sick and sometimes just waking up after a few days and the taste in my mouth would make me sick or just little stupid things. and i experienced a feeling not unlike vertigo/inner ear infection that went along with the nausea. 2. Once I had been taking the tabs for a while, I had a doc who wanted me to try the xr again and I grudgingly obliged. At that point in time I was taking either a 20 or 30 mg dose of the tabs. Taking the same dose of the xr, even if i timed it so that it would be at its peak before it left my body and i would fall into a sleep, didn't work. I found that I actually had to take twice the dose of the tabs i'd been taking to get the same result from the xr. Which is dangerous and not worth it. 3. The XR lasts longer but not as long as most doctors prescribe it for. I found that while the tabs will last me anywhere from 5-7 hours, the xr are supposed to last 12 hours but they are not a steady dose of meds like most xr medications are: they take a while to work and then do not give you the same effect that tabs do (for me, the level of alertness, staying awake, and cognitive functioning so it's very easy to differentiate) until four hours after they have been taken. Then around 6 hours they start winding down again and go away after maybe 8 or 9 hours, however the annoying side effects persist (insomnia, loss of appetite, anxiety, etc.).

If your doc insists on giving you xr, try to compromise and ask for xr in the morning and maybe 20mg or so tab to be taken in the late afternoon. That way you never have to take the xr after morning time and you get the little kick you need once the xr wears down. (Although if i had to work in the morning and was depending on the xr, I would set my alarm two hours early to take the xr and then go back to sleep.) but it'd be better if you didn't have to deal with it at all. If you are given an Rx of the max doseage allowed, 60mg tabs, taking 30mg upon waking and 30mg 6 hours later makes it so that by the time you're ready to wind down for the day you don't have any trace of unpleasant effects in your body. This, in my experience, was not true with the xr.

Hope I helped.
J

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You have no clue how difficult it is to function normally if you have ADD. For you to presume that everyone's chemical makeup is the same, is ridiculous. Someone that is diabetics or has cancer needs to take medicine to help prolong life. Also, people that use this medication that don't belong using it are criminals. They are severely hurting the people that truly need this medication to function normally.

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I just started classes for nursing and I can totally agree, I was reading my psychology book for hours and hours and even though I read it many time I still did horrible on my test....so glad to see I'm not the only one struggling with this issue. So nice to read post that relate to the same things I've been struggling with. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

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Do not judge others, especially when it comes to taking care of their kids. If a child does have adhd and is having a hard time in school and/or at home then it's time for a medical person to prescribe what is necessary to help. If nothing is done then odds are the child will fail or have a horrible experience at home and/or school. Not everyone abuses adhd medications! ! The reason why they prescribe these meds are BECAUSE PPL NEED THEM TO FUNCTION! !! To offer advice is loving, to tell them what to do in a rude matters is offensive! ! You should think twice before doing so! !

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You are absolutely right about being concerned about your child taking adderal. Adderal works SO different in many people you won't know if it helps unless you at least give it a trial run. The answer is always no until you ask.
my son initially took ritalin at 13. His school work had declined so bad he was held back 2 years. When he got older he was switched to adderal and I can now proudly say he has graduated from his collage with honors.
I also take adderal xr, 30 mg twice a day. I found the morning dose wore of in about 5 hours (I could actually feel the difference) so my doctor prescribed 2x a day for a total of 60 mg a day. I have never had any reservations about taking the adderal because at my proper dose now I feel better. I used to feel that if I tried to focus on one thing I could feel all the things around me making movement and thoughts flying all thru my head and distracting me. With my adderal I still am aware of what is around me, but it doesn't distract me or throw me off balance. I had severe anxiety b4 I started adderal now it is completely gone and I feel wonderful. I say do the trial and error and see what happens. You will never know how the medication I'll improve your life unless you take it.

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Wow, you are more ignorant then anyone who needs this medication. Go back to school and get an education instead of insulting people

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Get a new doctor

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Your doctor is full of crap. 20mg is not the highest dose. I just filled a Rx for 30mg yesterday. Also, your doctor seems to not know anything about drug interactions and I suggest you get a new doctor stat. Not only did he screw up with your daughter and lie to you about adderall, but he lied about not being able to treat both ADHD and anxiety. I take adderall (well, haven't yet, but about to..I had to switch from vyvanse because I don't have insurance and generic adderall was only $18) for ADHD and also Ativan for anxiety and they mix and work just fine. Your doctor is an i****.

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i have just recently started taking Amphetamine to stay awake. For years i have been really tired and when waking up i feel like i never slept at all. so i had a sleep test and the doc says i have severe sleep apnea. i am not excessively over weight maybe 15 pounds. after i started using the cpap machine i was still exhausted after waking up so the doc says that sleep apnea will kill the part of the brain that wakes us up and keeps us awake. so he prescribed amphetamine 10mg but try 1/2 pill, if that does nothing go to one whole etc.. up to 2 pills but absolutely never take more than 2 or i would get extremely sick. well 2 pills did nothing so my last visit on friday with the doc he prescribed me 20mg and to take 2 or 3 each morning. i took 2 and stayed awake during church. so i was wondering if anyone else was taking this to stay awake and if it helps them at all. i have started looking at hyperparathyroidism because they suffer from exhaustion as well. does anyone have any experience that i could use? thanks Rico

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You speak with great certainty about a subject that is not well understood, even by the best academic researchers. The amount of amphetamine in ADHD drugs is so small that researchers aren't sure why the drugs work at all.

Psych meds, including ADHD drugs, are at a primitive stage of development. The optimistic estimate is that 70% of patients report improvement. We don't know why that is either. Some people have extreme side effects, some people have very mild side effects.

Yet, in large studies, only those who take ADHD meds have shown demonstrable improvement.

In summary, regarding these meds, no one "knows of what they speak" at this time. I recommend humility to you regarding same.

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Stop being an ass, adderall is not methamphetamine or coke. Because someone has ADHD doesnt mean they're stupid it means they have trouble focussing. Adderal should be taken seriously and with constraint but don't be confused..it helps millions of kids everyday. Trust me kido I actually think before I type

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There seem to be two very different types of people posting here. One type is educated and knowledgable about ADHD while the other appears to have little education but strong opinions with little inclination to learn. So they espouse their beliefs without reading journal articles about the disorder. I wonder what kept them from getting an education.

For those who are really seeking answers instead of blasting their uninformed opinions, I will provide some information about the disorder. ADHD is a neurobiological developmental disorder. It is not caused by lack of discipline or bad parenting. It appears highly inheritable which is why children with the disorder appear to come from chaotic households in disproportionate numbers. The chaotic household did not cause the disorder. The (parent's) disorder caused both the chaotic household and the disorder in the offsprings. There appear to be structural and electrical neurological differences between people with and without ADHD. These differences are show reliably in well conducted studies-the studies that the uneducated people don't read (because they are relying on Church or TV). People with ADHD show increased activation in the superior temporal lobe and decreased anterior cingulate activation compared to people without ADHD. The stimulant medication described on this site simply brings the activation to a more normal level. The reason it appears to act differentially for those with the disorder and those not is that these regions are more normally activated when needed for those without the disorder. People who choose to abuse these and other substances have made life for the person who has ADHD much more difficult. Instead of scientists and regulators being able to devote themselves to producing and distributing an agent that is best for people with the disorder, they have to find ways to keep abusers from accessing them-something that makes access more difficult for people using the medication appropriately. Most of those people are failures in life. They have failed to be educated and failed to do other things that would help them to be contributors to society instead of users. Nearly every study conducted to date shows that medication is the best approach for symptom management. It is a life span disorder just like being born blind is a life span disorder. Medication will be needed for ones entire life. Medication does not change the abnormalities. It only helps people function more normally when they are on the medication. When they don't take it they function as they would have if they had never taken it.

People talk about the consequences and risks of medication but fail to consider the consequences and risks of living with uncontrolled ADHD. Studies repeatedly show that compared to people with unmedicated ADHD, those medicated have fewer accidents, fewer bad outcomes and are healthier. Those that use normal controls make it look like those on medication don't do as well. But not taking the medication does not make you like the unmedicated normal controls, it makes you like unmedicated people with ADHD. And unmedicated people with ADHD have horrible outcomes.

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I suffered with Add all my life and didnt know what it was. I received good grades in school, but you couldn't get me to sit through class or a book. Since I had good grades, my parents never thought there was a problem. I began to suffer from anxiety and spent 7 years on different depression medications. The worst 7 years until a psychologist took the time to sit and listen to me, observe me, and successfully diagnosed me with A.D.D. Now because of my anxiety I was extremely hesitant to take Adderal especially once I saw the label on the bottle. It said "Amphetamine Salts!" I marched into my psychiatrist's office, who was working with my psychologist, and asked her if she was trying to kill me? Lol I laugh now in hind sight! I said "this will give me a heart attack!" She turned me around and said "Go home, take the medicine, and come back in two weeks." I was in the process of moving two hours away to be closer to family and only then would I try these "Amphetamine Salts." So while cleaning my new home and surrounded by family, literally in my home, I decided to try the medicine at 10mg. I was vaccuming, listening to music, and next thing I knew I was relaxed and in bed watching a movie and fell asleep! So I went back to my psychiatrist and she up the dose to 20mg Xr. Now, 4 years later, I take 25mg XR 3x a day! I forgot to mention earlier in my post that I also suffer from insomnia my whole life. Now I can fall asleep now that my brain isn't buzzing all the time with a million and one thoughts! I do not take anything else!!! I have been Panic Attack free for 4 years and have no need to carry xanax with me everywhere I go in fear of having a panic attack. I can now drive long distances by myself and not be afraid of my heart coming out of my chest.
Adderal is a blessing!
I have a 7 year old son who has been diagnosed with A.D.D. He has even been prescribed Adderall, but I have not given it to him. As much as he tunes the world out, I cannot bring myself to give it to him. My son is extremely intelligent. He gets perfect grades in school and his teacher has everything positive to say about him. He gets 100% on every test. I do my best to instill good habits in him. He probably won't be taking Adderall anytime soon until he thinks he needs it or things change in school!
Hope my experience helps at least one other person, hopefully millions more!

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Thank you, Sarah, for your thoughtful response to Margarita's ridiculous assertions.

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Make sure your insurance will cover it in name brand first..your Dr may have to put an override code on the script. Good luck!

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I'm so glad I came here trying to find some answers for my husband, he just called his dr and of course the dr says there is no difference In generic or brand but u can clearly tell there is and that makes sense that the fillers may have a different effect. Every time he gets his prescription they all look different, sometimes pink, sometimes orange and this last medication he got was orange but they were extremely thin and he said they haven't done anything he's even up'd his dose and it still does nothing. Thanks for the insight guys.

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Hey, Margarita,
you sound like a well-educated authority on ADHD and stimulant treatments... NOT!

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