Posted by Peter on June 1, 2003, at 12:43:36
Hi:
My pdoc has been attempting to replace my adderall 40mg with straterra, believing that the adderall has, over time, increased my base level of anxiety. I've been taking straterra for a little over 2 weeks, 1st week at 10mg, second at 18mg. I've been simultaneously trying to reduce the adderall by @5mg a week. The first reduction was ok; I was taking it for a long time 20mg bid, and I took 5mg off the a.m dose. However, the 2nd 5mg decrease has been very difficult for me, as I am so used to the calming and focusing effects of the adderall. I often go a few days succesfully taking 15mg bid, only to then back up and begin taking the 15 + 20mg dosing because I feel I can't focus and relax. My pdoc, as a result of my restlesness and irritability, told me to drop my 10mg prozac, which I did this past Friday; he said stopping the prozac 'cold-turkey' is ok because it takes a long time for it to gradually taper itself out of your system.
After having stopped the prozac, I believe I feel less restless, but I'm also more bored and lethargic. Unfortunatley, this makes it even harder to stick with the adderall taper.
It seems so far that the strattera affects me a lot differently than adderall; the strattera seems like a subtle mood-stabilizer, whereas the adderall really gives me 2 sustained periods of focus and drive. However, the whole reason we're switching, aside from the overall heightened anxiety, is because my doc believes the adderall to also be responsible for a certain 'rockiness' in my mood - peaks & valleys.
Does anyone have experience with replacing a stim with straterra? How did you do it (by what process)? Do you actually find that the straterra does in fact have similar affects as a stim? Did these affects become noticeable only after you tapered completely off the stim and got to a certain level of strattera? If so, what dosing of strattera was effective?
BTW, I also take lamictal 50mg, klonopin 2mg (divided over a few hours before bed), temazepam 15mg, trazadone 25mg, melatonin 3mg, and ambien 5mg for sleep. Doc also says replacing adderall with straterra will help me to taper off the loads of sedatives I take at night. It's just another drug-shuffling process, and I tend to get more anxious when I go through med turnarounds; I wonder if it's really worth switching everything around AGAIN - it seems to happen every month!
Thanks,
Peter
poster:Peter
thread:230587
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030530/msgs/230587.html