Vyvanse: No Addiction with ADD/ADHD Medication
ByAlthough many people worry about ADD/ADHD medication leading to addiction in children and teens who take it – there is solid research now that shows that when children and teens take ADD/ADHD medication as prescribed, there is a significant reduction in the long term risk of drug and alcohol problems (it is reduced by almost 75%).
However, there are still people who abuse ADD/ADHD medications. In the Toronto area, regular ritalin pills (i.e. 10 mg tablets) can be bought on the street for approximately $5. Why? Because people will crush them and snort them to get high.
The newer and long acting ADD/ADHD medications – including Concerta, Adderall XR, Biphentin, Metadate CD, Ritalin LA, Focalin XR – are much harder to abuse because of their long acting nature. However, in theory, a creative drug abuser could figure out a way to extract the active ingredient and get high, by snorting it or injecting it.
What’s the difference with Vyvanse?
Because Vyvanse is a ‘pro-drug’, it cannot be abused.
A pro-drug means that the active medicine is bound to a protein, so it doesn’t work as an amphetamine when it is first taken. It only starts to work after it is swallowed and goes through the liver (the first step a medicine takes when leaving the stomach). When it goes through the liver, the liver cuts off the protein, and then it becomes an active medicine.
If Vyvanse is taken any other way – snorted, injected, or any other way in an attempt to get high, it will just be inert – i.e. it won’t work at all.
The only way Vyvanse is active – is if it is swallowed and then passes through the liver.
Vyvanse is the first stimulant medicine made available with zero potential for abuse.
When it comes to the other medications with low abuse potential – these include the long acting stimulants – including: Concerta, Adderall XR, Biphentin, Metadate CD, Ritalin LA, Focalin XR, etc.
When it comes to the only other medication with zero potential for abuse, that is the non-stimulant for ADD/ADHD, Strattera. This is also a good option, however if someone needs a stimulant medicine with no potential for abuse, Vyvanse is the medication to choose.
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vyvanse
My concern with Adderall generic is the abuse potential – I take 3 a day – that means I have 90 pills when the script is filled – the temptation to take more than prescribed is very high.
Anyone have this problem?
3 years ago I had a heavy addiction to Adderall and opiates. I have 2 autoimmune diseases that slow me down so the appeal to abuse these drugs was overwhelming. When I became immune to the dosage, thats when I would increase. 3 years later I’m clean, my life has been completely turned around, and now I work full time in ministry. Because of my hypothyroidism, I experience great depression, concentration issues, weakness, etc. Even taking Armour Thyroid wasn’t helping with the depression so my doctor tried me on every single antidepressant out there. When all failed, he wanted to try Vyvanse which threw up a red flag immediately. My life has to much purpose now to throw it away to an addiction but my life is also miserable at times b/c of the depression I experience and the pain that having myositis causes me. My doctor thinks that my addiction caused some permanent damage that may only be treatable with a stimulant administered with much accountability to ensure that I’m not taking more than I’m suppose to. I’m still so unsure. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired but isnt there something else out there that wont cause debilitating withdrawals? I know I cant live in the same mental state and physical state I’m in now but I’m unsure of what to do next.
For all you people out there who are reading this and don’t actually have ADD/ADHD. Don’t even think about it. Vyvanse is addictive. It should only be taken as prescribed unless you want to become an insomniac and slowly let your sanity slip away while you’re not watching.
@zane
i am not pro-drug, but did try my 8yr old son who is diagnosed with aspergers/add with vyvance this past january. after 3 weeks he had morphed into a completely different (not for the better)child. it was like he was two stops away from a psych.breakdown-which is not his personality at all. lost 6lbs in 3 weeks, was in tears over everything and it completley hightened his paranoid tendancys. never again the stuff should be outlawed.
Vyvanse does have the potential for abuse, which is why it is a Schedule II Controlled substance in the United States. Different drug formulations (extended release, etc) do not decrease the potential for the DRUG to cause dependency and abuse, as with all stimulants. Stimulants, including Vyvanse, should be used under direct supervision of a physician.
Did Dr. Handelman forget you can still swallow the pills?
Is it not abuse to swallow two or more?
Just because there is no glamour in pill popping as there is
in shooting up doesn’t mean vyvanse is abuse-proof.