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I (probably) have ADD and I've been taking dextroamphetamine for it for a year now. It works well for me: my only complaint is that when I take a day off of it (which I do once a week to try to stave off desensitization) I get very irritable and snap at people. However my provider is concerned about my blood pressure, which has stayed decently high over the last year. I've tried exercise and losing weight, but it's still high. I know that high blood pressure will kill you eventually (if not your heart, then your kidneys) and have been trying hard to get it lower to no avail.
So she prescribed me bupropion instead. It's a norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI) used for depression and anxiety but often used off-label for ADHD. She indicated that since it's not a stimulant it will probably have less of an effect on my blood pressure.
So far I've only been on it 4 days, and it's supposed to take 2-4 weeks to really kick in. It's been okay so far: I've been taking a smaller dose of dextroamphetamine along with it to get by until it kicks in. So far I've been less productive at work and more distractible than when I'm taking dextroamphetamine, but I'm also not getting irritable. And while I'm less focused I also seem to have an easier time getting mundane tasks done. Usually when I'm not medicated I despise cleaning, yet the past few nights it hasn't been a problem. Heck, I had a bit of free time earlier than usual and decided to get a head start on my nightly cleaning chores instead of reading a book or playing a video game, which is definitely unusual.
I also seem to have some emotional instability or magnification: I was watching Peter Pan with my kids and when the pirates had Wendy walk the plank I suddenly got choked up and teary eyed. Very unusual, normally I am emotionally detached from fictional works.
Anybody have experience with bupropion?
What about adding intuniv, a combo anxiety/adhd/blood pressure medication, to dex? I love the combo.
Do you love it because you have experience with it and it works, or because it's theoretically the perfect solution? I may have to suggest it to my provider.
Both. I've tried five or ten anti anxiety meds - SSRI, Buspar, lavender, SNRI - and it's the only one that I like. Everything else made me spacy or depressed or sleepy.
I also like that it's easy/fast to titrate on/off. A few days should be enough to know if you like it. It should also be cheap and unlikely to raise flags.
Like everything else ever, may not be great for your appetite or dick.
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My experience with Bupropion was that it just didn't work :(
It was prescribed to me for depression, though I do have ADHD myself, but it frankly had no effects or side effects I could glean from a year of use.
Thanks for the feedback! I will keep that in mind: if it doesn't seem to be doing anything after a couple months, consider that it might never do anything.
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I'm curious about your experience with dextroamphetamine in regards to appetite. Besides attention disorders it's sometimes prescribed for binge eating and seems to work well. I once took a (possibly too large) dose of it and sure enough I felt no desire to eat anything for the whole day, along with feeling a bit jittery. You mention trying to lose weight so is it not working in that way for you? Or if it does to a small extent, are you expecting to gain weight after going off of it?
Dextroamphetamine does reduce my appetite. When I first started taking it I had some hopes that I would just start losing weight, but that didn't happen. Appetite or no, I enjoy eating too much. However it has been helpful in making dieting easier than it normally would. I've had a concentrated campaign of trying to lose weight for 7 months now and I've managed to lose about 20 pounds. Skipping breakfast, not eating any sweets or fast food, small lunches, vaguely counting calories, that sort of thing. Even with dextroamphetamine it has been difficult to do.
I was a bit worried switching to bupropion would sabotage my weight loss efforts, but apparently suppressing appetite is a known side effect. Supposedly dextroamphetamine works by stimulating the release of dopamine, and bupropion is supposed to lower the rate dopamine is removed from the brain, so I guess it makes sense they have similar effects there.
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