Dextroamphetamine symptoms and conditions

A brief note about "Adderall": this is the trade name of an amphetamines product. It consists of four different amphetamines, such as amphetamine sulfate and amphetamine lactate. However, the "sulfate" and the "lactate" parts are NOT important. The only thing that is important is AMPHETAMINE, regardless of which form. 100% of the effects of Adderall are because of its content of amphetamine, NOT the specific forms of the amphetamine (called, chemically, "salts"). You can get the same effects from generic amphetamine (typically dextroamphetamine sulfate) as from Adderall. The company that makes it claims that Adderall works quicker and lasts longer, but this is mostly bullshit. It is really not significant, and in fact plain old generic dextroamphetamine is generally considered superior to the other forms, including the forms in Adderall. (See the en.wikipedia.org writeup on Adderall for details.)

Incidentally, the Adderall company, facing patent expiration on Adderall and thus more generic competition, is now heavily pushing its new "Vyvanse" -- another amphetamine product with very dubious if any advantages, and indeed probably MORE side effects than Adderall or other amphetamines, and, of course, a much higher price. More pharmaceutical company bullshit! Don't buy it.

Anyway, to return to the main point: Adderall or generic amphetamine makes no difference, except this one big one: The PRICE! Adderall is ridiculously expensive -- typically $1-4 per pill, sometimes even more. This is a total ripoff, since amphetamine is a CHEAP old drug, and the actual cost of 10 or 20 or 30 mgs of it (as in one typical tablet) is negligible, well under a penny. In other words, they ought to sell for, say, $10 or $15 per hundred -- enough to cover the cost of the drug itself (perhaps 10 cents or so) plus all the costs of tableting, bottling, distribution and so forth, with room for the pharmacy's markup. The idea of paying $100 or $200 or even $400 for a dime worth of a cheap old drug is outrageous -- but it happens. It is the greed of the pharmaceutical company combined with the greed of the individual pharmacist that causes this. Pharmacies vary a great deal in pricing, but the producing company also grossly overcharges.

Bottom line: INSIST ON THE GENERIC. Even if insurance covers it and you only have a $5 co-pay. Why? Because the health care system of the U.S. is driving the country bankrupt, and super-high drug costs is one of the reasons. This is one way you can make a contribution, however small, to solving the problem of a medical-academic-industrial-pharmaceutical complex that costs the U.S. well over $2 trillion per year (far larger than the military-industrial complex, and far more per capita than any other developed country). Part of the problem is prescriptions that cost $300 for 50-cents worth of a drug. Be part of the solution.

End of rant. Be well!

I've been taking Adderall XR 30mg per day for two years. I've gained 20 pounds and feel terrible. My doctor keeps telling me he doesn't know why I'm gaining weight. That is making me feel even worse!!! Can anyone tell me what's going on??? I also take Wellburtin & Lexapro. Before I took any of these medications, I asked the doctor if I could gain weight from them. He told me that these particular drugs do not cause weight gain. The thing that's so frustrating is, I was put on these drugs for anxiety and depression (results of an abusive marriage). How can I begin to feel better about myself if I'm gaining lots of weight? That just kills it for me. Can anyone out there offer some advice? My doctor won't even let me take an appetite suppressant. I take Adderall in the A.M. If I want, I can go right back to bed and sleep again. I also get hunger pains about 2 hours later!!! Help!!

2/6/05 4:06 am
l am astonished. For my physiology, they have tweaked a molecule that is unsurpassed in its ability to produce pathological insomnia. ADHD is my tag and I have a need for larger than average doses of stimulants: either dextroamphetamine (note applicable ladies and gents that if you're taking Adderall the following: pharmaceuticals are more commercially driven than ever now and the producer of Adderall have, amongst a few companies that pursued this tactic, have found a loop hole or a method they believe can foil the patent system: Shire Richwood. They re-issued a drug 'combo' and imply it is their creation when it was sold by several companies going back to the '60's. It's a strange mixture of different 'versions'; I'll call it, of amphetamine.). or Desoxyn (I hesitate to use its generic name methamphetamine: it has been so demonized by the media. If you go into a pharmacy in a large city, the only places that would carry a small supply, and present the Rx; a sudden aura of hell enshrouds the vicinity. Pharmacists retreat and discuss what should be done... another error in our (usually wise and valuable) system of checks & balances: a pharmacist has the right to in effect second GUESS the prescription holders malady, which they have no professional or personal knowledge of. Presenting a doctor's (and if you're going to a quality doctor who follow science rather than popularisms- there are fewer of the former than the latter.. they will know the truth of such things as Desoxyn®. Their duty and knowledge should not be permitted to be judged by the redundant cook that spoils the soup)

Back to Adderall. This is called a 'branded generic", and the pricing of same follows of course the former words characteristics. As mentioned, this is an EXACT copy of the combo sold before as diet pills. Shire Richwood did no research, rather did a few studies and then wiggled their way through the FDA/DEA to secure approval to manufacture an old recipe and be permitted to get it branded with attendant pricing.
Amphetamine was sythsized in 1888. Way before unless you are allergic to it, the safest and most true & tried drug Aspirin. Time (real non theoretical, laboratorial) is the most reliable source of information
The dextro part of the drug is the part that is safest and more specific in reaching the deficiencies present with the condition.

To close and reveal this designer drug's characteristics: bupropion (Wellbutrin). You see the patent holder pulls fast ones in desperation to keep that patent from expiring at which time the drug has been known to decrease 50 TIMES overnight. Wellbutrin had to shuffle. The SR version could no longer be protected from patent protection so they really go out on a limb and sell XR as a brand.
This designer molecule has somehow been developed, at least for this body something that, amongst whatever good may come of its use, specifically makes sleep almost impossible. All the others mentioned are much more powerful in their CNS effects but none: even a still sold but probably not the answer to weight loss diethyPROPION does not hold a candle to the effect on sleep as buPROPION. I am dumping the stuff which WAS being taken as a trial alternate to dextroamphetamine (for the sole reason by the way that I would entertain switching from something that is safer (time), cheaper, and supremely efficacious, is because it is a Schedule ll drug meaning that a new Rx must be obtained as a physical document (nation-wide not permitted to be refilled nor ordered by telephone: MD to Pharmacy). I am 48 and I am certain, pending more revealing info on the disorder that being a life long incurable but symptomatically treated condition, I am looking at an enormous amount of time and money spent over the next 30-50 years- however long I last. Unwellbutrin

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