Posted by jonathanupr on December 1, 2006, at 22:58:42
I've been taking ADHD meds for around 5 years now, the first 3 of those years I'd taken Wellbutrin and the last 2 I've switched to taking the CNS stims. The looming issue I've dealt with in taking ADHD meds has been a rise in an OCD disorder (with a bit of a raspy tinge of anger/irritability) that I have at times.... thus, to help with such I've tried the majority of SSRIs and a few anti-convulsants to ease such disorder.
What I've observed is, that the meds that inhibit reuptake of either nor-epinephrine or dopamine exacerbate the OCD disorder much more than meds that do not inhibit reuptake as much. Examples of this are: (1) the Wellbutrin made the OCD issue fly out of whack, thank god I found an SSRI or I'd have gone crazed with worry that I was something that I truly was not.......the Wellbutrin is noted to be such an NRI, (2)the first stim I took was Adderall, hah! the first day taking it I felt stimmed, and I drank a cup of coffee on top of that, and at the time I was not on any buffer med such as an SSRI or an AC, that was a 1 day trial where I felt a little too obsessive that a past drug addiction (mostly alcoholism) was going to come out full blown, so I flushed the meds, he heh. (3) I decided to give another stim a try a few months later after getting further diagnosed as having ADHD. This stim was Concerta, though before I went on it, I began taking an SSRI. This turned out decent and all went well until it started waning on me. There was a bit of OCD and irritability, but I was willing to deal with it. (4) due to the waning issue of the Concerta, I decided to switch over to Adderall again. This time I had a much different experience. After a few months of taking a 30 mg dose, I went down to 25 mgs on my request and things started to get done in my life (my interests in reading went up big time, and I was actually absorbing the material instead of reading a paragraph and having to go back and re-read it because I went to thinking of other things). Though, the Adderall was a bit more provoking on the worrisome side of the OCD, so I sought out another P-Doc, and began taking a GRI (in Gabitril) which helped immensely and still does in bringing down my irritability/anger that comes about from taking stims. (5) due to hearing a lot of good reviews on Dexedrine I figured I'd give it a try. Sad to say I felt immensely irritable and rageful on it, even at a low dose. I tried combinations of the Adderall at 20 mgs and the Dex at 5 mgs, but still the irritability and rage were ever lurking (I did feel like I was able to get my drive up to get things done, like writing and reading longer, but the trade-off wasn't worth it.......that's my brake in itself, the OCD/irritability are hellish deterents...and when over-doing a stim, ech!!! tis like a kid inhaling a whole pack of smokes, he never wants to touch them again). (6) next came Focalin, this was a good med, I felt creative again like I was on Wellbutrin, but I couldn't concentrate nearly to the extent that I could on an amphetamine. I've tried combos of the Adderall and the Focalin, just produces a bit of spaciness at the end of the day, and the OCD is a bit worse than just the usual dosing of the Adderall. (7)this is the biggest piece of luck I had, my P-doc gave me a script for a PM dose of Adderall, it happened to be a generic version, one produced by Barr. Since I've tried this, I've switched over to taking the generic version daily instead of the XR Adderall. Wow!! is all I can say in regards to the reduction of my irritability/anger/OCD that I had on the Adderall. The generic version is smooth riding without the piss and vinegar feeling that I get from the Shire version (Brand) of the Adderall. So pretty much I take around 20 to 30 mgs of the generic daily, depending on the day, 10 mgs in the morning, followed by 5 mgs every 2 to 3 hours (no drop-off and I don't have to worry about losing the concentration and focus that occurred during the 5th to 8th hrs of the Brand XR). I've tried the Brand SR and still the piss and vinegar (a bit more drive and it does last longer, so I'm thinking back to the Dexedrine, ah! it seemingly has more dextro-amphetamine than does the generic, as the l-amphetamine does not last as long...it seems to be a shoe-in to be more abundant within the generic version...just my take on it).
Now getting to the point of this thread I started, I'm thinking about trying Desoxyn. I've read up on it but really haven't found a whole lot of info of the long-term repercutions of its use on the dopamine neuronal network. Just a lot of negative info from propagandists out there. What I've come to see is, that the combination of dopamine/nor-epinephrine release with dopamine and nor-epinephrine reuptake inhibition aggravates the OCD/irritability issues that I have (which can be seen with the dextro-amphetamine, ritalin, wellbutrin, and other SSRI/NRIs I've taken along with the stims).
Now I was hoping some individuals may have info on Desoxyn's effects on the catecholamines (both release and reuptake inhibition, or just release), as well as experience with it, and so much the better if such individuals have a concomitant disorder such as OCD (I'd love to hear how the difference was between the Desoxyn and the other stims in aggravating such an issue).
poster:jonathanupr
thread:709567
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061129/msgs/709567.html