Health and Life » vyvanse

10 Things You Should Know About Vyvanse

Admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:37:28 +0000

This article was written by a new addition to our team who has significant personal experience with the ADHD medication Vyvanse.

None of the ADHD medications I had tried, Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera and Wellbutrin had helped me much. Vyvanse has.

First, I go over 10 things I’ve learned from taking Vyvanse for about a year that may help you if you are taking or considering taking it.

These are things you can pretty much only know if you have been taking it for a while – that would have made my life a lot easier had I known when I was starting!

And if you want to learn more about ADHD, see here.

The 10 Things You Should Know About Vyvanse

1) Vyvanse is extremely long lasting

Its half life is about 9 and a half hours give or take an hour or two. That means that in most people, the medication has some effect for up to 14 hours! But there is more to the story – see element 8.

2)You can take Vyvanse daily

You can take it every single day of the week, every day of the month, and every month of the year – and it still works!

You hear all the time about people saying they develop tolerance to ADHD medications or they stop working – so I was very scared. I didn’t want to take Vyvanse every day because it helped so much and I couldn’t stand the thought of it not working anymore. But thankfully, it seems you can take it daily and it still works!

Online ADHD/ADD diagnostic test

3) At the right dose, you might start thinking that it isn’t working anymore eventually.

It seems that a lot of people who take ADHD medications, when they find the right dose and are consistently taking it, don’t really feel like it is doing anything.

Which is wonderful! Because, for me at least, it means that my personality and who I am are 100% intact – I take Vyvanse and I feel like it doesn’t do anything (but it does!)

Now when I tell you that the Vyvanse still works for me and that I very often worry it has stopped working, you may feel doubtful. The reason I can say this for sure is that if I try a slightly higher dose, say 50mg instead of 40mg, then I feel way, way, overfocused. If the 40mg had stopped working, this would not be the case.

4) Vyvanse is d-amphetamine

It turns out that Adderall is made out of d and l-amphetamines. The l-amphetamine type may be responsible for the weird feeling some people get on Adderall. It does provide more of a motivational kick, however – but I much rather not have it and feel like myself.

5) Vyvanse is mostly digested in the blood so what you eat likely won’t affect it so much

With some ADHD medications, your diet content really affects how the drug is released. It turns out that with Vyvanse, most of the action takes place in the blood. This means that your diet likely won’t affect it so much, but I still don’t drink orange juice in the morning on it.

6) It takes an hour to kick in, and two hours to fully kick in

I take Vyvanse in the morning with a cup of water and have a snack 20 minutes later. It starts having an effect I can notice at 20 minutes and is ‘fully’ operational (to the point where I trust myself to send emails or work on something) at about 1 hour.

7) Exercising does not seem to change its effects very much. I can get a 20 minute high intensity cardio work out and still feel the Vyvanse working normally. This is very important because I love exercising.

8) It becomes weaker at night

When I first took Vyvanse, I felt the difference from 9am in the morning to 9pm at night. With time, I felt like it stopped working at 7pm and then, increasingly, that it stopped at 5pm. 9am to 5pm is 8 hours. I started getting depressed and was not able to do things past 5pm; figuring out what’s really going on got me back on track.

At 5pm or 8 hours in, the levels of Vyvanse are about 60% of their peak (for me, at least, and in my estimation).

At 7pm, or 10 hours in, the levels are about 40% of their peak.

At 10pm, or 13 hours in, they are at about 20% of their peak.

How do I know all this? First, this is my personal experience. Second, I am basing it off my experiments with Dexedrine instant release. See the next item.

9) I think there are about 3.3mg of Vyvanse to 1mg of Dexedrine instant release. I can’t find a number from a reputable site for conversion, but this ratio seems to work and I’ve heard it in several places.

This is important because I’ve found that I need to start taking small doses of Dexedrine at night to keep my levels of d-amphetamine where they need to be (yes, I know how horrible that sounds. ADHD is not always fun.)

What that means is as follows: I now take 2.5mg of Dexedrine IR at 6-7pm, 2.5mg at 8pm, and ~4mg more somewhere around 9-10pm. (This is all based on my taking Vyvanse at 9am but I usually take it earlier these days. When I started, I was so depressed that I was sleeping a lot.)

The reason this is important to you is that you may have a similar experience to mine in that you might need to work on things that take focus or need ADHD symptom relief even at night. Vyvanse works really, really long, but at the low dose it is at night, I simply can’t function in what is now ‘normal’ to me.

10) Being on Vyvanse for a year has given me stability

I have had more than 40 hobbies in my life and I’m just a college student. I would go from learning calligraphy, to conducting medical research, to crashing parties, to bike riding, to swimming, to hip hop dance, to studying infectious diseases to… you get the drift.

The ads for Vyvanse say something like “consistently Vyvanse.” I hate ads and you do too, probably. But, for the first time in my life, someone called me ‘consistent.’

If being consistent means sticking with a job and performing well, getting promoted and professional recognition, studying for classes, developing meaningful friendships and relationships over time, being able to remember things that happen to me – being happy, sure I’ll take it.

Even if the ADHD part of me does not, does not in any way shape of form like being called ‘consistent.’ =)

Adult ADHD:

ADHD can be different in adults than children. If you are concerned that you might have ADHD and are over 18, see an ADHD Test Made For Adults.

And knowing the 4 Secrets to Success with ADHD may make your life a lot easier.

Related Articles:

ADHD and ADD Online Diagnostic Test

ADHD/ADD Natural Remedy Report

Overcoming ADHD: A Guide for Parents

Vyvanse: Many Advantages as ADHD Therapy?

Admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:35:34 +0000

Vyvanse is a new treatment for ADHD that is very promising. Importantly, it has several advantages that distinguish it from the many competing treatments. At Health and Life, we are skeptical by nature, but there are advantages to Vyvanse that make it stand out.

In our analysis, Vyvanse tends to provide consistent and effective treatment for ADHD, possibly outperforming the competition. On almost every way to analyze the effectiveness of an ADHD medication, it seems to have advantages. Here’s why we think so.

There are many advantages of Vyvanse with few disadvantages.

Advantages:

It is long release. It has drug release characteristics that are very helpful to people with ADHD and outperform competing formulations on multiple dimensions. There are studies which show it works well for at least a year. It is hard to abuse. It typically has some effect for 14 hours. It is made only of d-amphetamine. And it is pretty effective.

The disadvantages:

Because it is just d-amphetamine, some may not respond as strongly to it as to Adderall. It is expensive as there is no generic.

Let’s go through each point.

Long release:

Vyvanse is a long release form of d-amphetamine.

Clinicians tend to report superior results from long release medications over short. These experiences are supported by data which show that long release treatments tend to perform superior to instant release in ADHD. A pill that lasts 10-12 hours or longer with smooth release and consistent drug behavior tends to provide better stability than multiple instant release pills over that same time frame.

It’s a lot easier to do as well which improves adherence and makes life easier for the person taking the medication.

Drug release:

The drug release of Vyvanse seems to have significant advantages over existing therapies, particularly certain forms of competing amphetamine extended release forms. People who take Vyvanse have very even and consistent drug release with little variability. If you take it, you’ll soon know how it works and be able to expect it to do so. For someone who has ADHD, this certainty can mean that they will, possibly for the first time in their life, have consistent performance.

The reason for its superior performance is likely due to the design of its drug release.

Vyvanse is made of an inactive form of d-amphetamine linked to lysine and has to be digested by the body to take effect.

The conversion of inactive Vyvanse to its active form kicks in quickly after being taken and is typically finished within an hour of taking. Because 90% of the conversion tends to take place in the blood, this means that it is highly unlikely that the acidity of your stomach will affect the drug release. This is not the case with many other competing treatments.

Vyvanse reaches peak levels at about 3 and a half hours after taking and, at around 9 and a half hours, is about half gone from your body. It is still present at some degree of action in general for 12-14 hours, although the level may be low enough that someone taking it might not realize that is the case.

Fasting has a modest effect on its release.

Some aspects of Vyvanse’s release pattern are 3.5 times less variable than mixed amphetamine salts extended release.

Vyvanse tends to work consistently, with predictable release patterns that are not as strongly affected by diet or daily variation as some of its competitors. For someone with ADHD, this can mean a significant quality of life advantage.

Long term data of efficacy:

Studies show that people taking Vyvanse for up to a year still have greater than 60% improvement from baseline in ADHD symptoms. This long term data supports use of Vyvanse for years.

Lower abuse potential:

Because Vyvanse is digested in the blood, injecting it into your blood does not seem to provide the high that might be attained by other treatments. Additionally, snorting it is also unlikely to provide as much a high.

Because Vyvanse is long release, it additionally has less potential for abuse as abuse of stimulants tends to prefer instant release forms.

Long effect:

About half of Vyvanse is left in your body after ~9 ½ hours. This means that it has some effect for a long time. This extended release pattern outperforms competitors who do not last as long.

D-amphetamine:

Vyvanse is made of d-amphetamine. This form of amphetamine may be less likely to cause anxiety side effects or feelings of “weirdness” compared to Adderall, which has the l-type in addition to the d-type. On the other hand, it may also not provide as much of a “kick” or generate the same degree of motivation as Adderall does.

Expensive:

Vyvanse is not generic so a prescription for it can cost more than the generic Adderall XR.

ADHD and ADD Online Diagnostic Test

ADHD/ADD Natural Remedy Report

Overcoming Adhd: A Guide For Parents

Vyvanse vs Adderall XR – Benefits, Problems

Admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:48:33 +0000

Vyvanse vs Adderall XR:

Vyvanse is a new treatment for ADHD and this article compares it to Adderall.

If you want to learn the 10 most important things you should know about Vyvanse, see here.

Are you confused by all your medication options? (Ritalin, Adderall, Focalin, Vyvanse, Intuniv, Metadate, Pemoline – and that’s just getting started!) Figure things out – a Full List of ADHD Medications tells you what you need to know.

Now…

First, it’s important to realize that Vyvanse is Shire’s replacement for their old blockbuster drug, Adderall XR, which is losing its patent.

If you’re being suggested to take Vyvanse, it’s not necessarily because it’s a better medication.

Shire wants to turn it into a billion dollar drug, and has unleashed a marketing campaign of that magnitude, aimed at consumers and doctors.

On the other hand, Vyvanse does have some advantages over Adderall. It also has a few disadvantages.

Comparing Vyvanse vs Adderall is made slightly harder because both drugs are amphetamines. If you take either, you’re getting pretty much the same thing.

That said, there are some important differences.

1) Vyvanse is 100% d-amphetamine, while Adderall XR is a mix of 4 different d and l-amphetamines.

This mix in Adderall may make it more effective, stronger. But it might cause more anxiety or physical side effects. See later for discussion of the differences between the amphetamine types.

The next big difference is that:

2) Vyvanse is released via digestion, while Adderall is released by bead technology.

The digestion release may make Vyvanse smoother, last longer, and have less variability. What you eat might not effect it so much, while Adderall XR may be more effected by, say, having a cup of orange juice.

This release also means that snorting or injecting Vyvanse provides less of a high. As many have pointed out, however, Vyvanse can provide a high just by being taken at higher doses.

Advantages of Vyvanse

We have a full article discussing the Advantages of Vyvanse.

Vyvanse has been shown to have effect for a very long time, up to 14 hours in some studies. While realistically that duration of effect may not happen, it works fairly well for fairly long.

This is likely because its release mechanism is typically smooth, meaning less variability.

Finally, Vyvanse is pure d-amphetamine, which may mean less of certain side effects compared to the l and d-amphetamine of Adderall.

Disadvantages of Vyvanse

Vyvanse is basically nothing more than extended release Dexedrine. And while it seems to have fewer side effects relating to anxiety and release, it may cause more side effects like reduced appetite.

Because Vyvanse is so new, it may be significantly more expensive than other options or not covered by insurance, especially since both Dexedrine and Adderall are available in generic form. We also simply do not know as much about it as we do about the older drugs.

Finally, some users feel that it’s not as strong as Adderall, and that it stops working earlier than advertised.

l versus d amphetamine

Remember that Vyvanse is pure d-amphetamine, while Adderall is a mix of d- and l-forms.

The d form may be more effective at reducing impulsiveness and overactivity. The l form, on the other hand, may increase concentration better, but it may also cause more anxiety. It is also per molecule less effective than the d form, but such a distinction is perhaps irrelevant.

The d form may effect more dopamine, as opposed to both noradrenaline and dopamine in the l form. This theory, however, is not established. Noradrenaline is involved in anxiety responses, which may explain why Adderall XR seems to be worse for anxiety.

Adult ADHD:

ADHD is a lot different in adults than in children. Hyperactivity, for instance, is not necessarily there or in the same form as in kids.

If you are over 18 and worried that you might have ADHD, check out an ADHD Test Made for Adults.

Learn what the 4 Secrets To Success with ADHD are – it could really help you understand what’s going on in your life.