Posted by fachad on July 6, 2002, at 21:00:16
In reply to Please Advise on Adderall Loosing Effectiveness??, posted by jazzaholic on July 6, 2002, at 18:11:03
jazzaholic,
The first thing you should think about and really become clear on is what you mean by "effectiveness", and what things are not the same now that it has "lost effectiveness".
The euphoria, appetite suppressant, and stimulant effects of amphetamines wear off eventually for everyone that takes these meds on a regular basis.
Those effects are short-term achievable, but not long-term sustainable.
Increasing the dose only buys a little time and you will eventually hit the FDA prescribing limit, where no further dose increases are possible. Thus, increasing the dose as tolerance develops is a dead end strategy.
I don't know how well you would fare if you asked for a dose increase after this much time. Pdocs are usually willing to adjust the dose in the initial period, but they are usually reluctant to do so later in the game. You could try asking, your pdoc may be fine with it, but I'd tread lightly there.
Short of actually increasing the dose, there are a few things you can do to help maintain the benefits of your current Adderall dose.
First and most important IMHO, is to set realistic expectations about what this med will do for you long term. As I said earlier, the euphoria, appetite suppressant, and stimulant effects will wear off. If you increase the dose, those effects will come back; then they will wear off again. Thinking about that may make a dose increase seem like less of a good answer to you.
Second, you can take supplements to make sure your body does not become depleted of dopamine. Adderall causes release of dopamine from storage; with regular use you can deplete your stores.
Dopamine is synthesized from l-tyrosine. Vitamin C and several of the B Complex Vitamins are required for the synthesis. So a Vitamin C, B complex and l-tyrosine supplements would not be a bad idea.
Finally, you could try several variations on the "drug holiday" concept. Often people take Adderall on Monday thru Friday, skip it on the weekends, and then find that it is working again on Monday.
If you stopped completely for a week or two, you would probably get effects similar to when you first started taking it. So you could try a 2 week drug holiday every few months.
Another thing to try that works for me is to take a lower dosage for a period of time or just frequently take a lower dosage. Your 20 mg tablets are double-scored; break a tablet into quarters and then try taking only 3/4 or 15mg for a few days or a week. Then 20 mg will seem like an effective dose again.
Good luck. Be sure to let us know how it goes.
-fachad
poster:fachad
thread:111592
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020628/msgs/111609.html