Generic Adderall IR – equivalence?

[Anonymous]

I JUST started Adderall IR two days ago… I’m supposed to “play with” dosing for the first month, keeping a log to help determine the proper dosing. I screwed up and after two days of 10 mg, 3x/day, I took 20 for my afternoon dosing and here I sit at my computer unable to sleep… oops. I wasn’t feeling much in the way of help on the 10 mg…. Onto my question.

I did quite a bit of reading prior to my psych appointment last week as I wanted to go in as educated as possible regarding my symptoms and potential treatments. I was diagnosed and medicated as a child, however after hitting ~7th grade I was taken off the meds. I improved dramatically with heavy exercise. Since starting college and the ten years after, I’ve had “difficulty” to say the least concentrating and finishing tasks.

On another ADD/ADHD site (http://www.addadhdblog.com/adhd-medication-are-generics-the-same/#d81e)

He discusses Adderall XR and it’s generic. I was worried when I spoke with my Dr. and requested brand name Adderall instead of generics b/c I read where quite a few people had issues with side effects and efficacy with generic A-XR.

Have people had similar issues with the generic vs. the brand IR?

Thanks!

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[Anonymous]

It is really quite surprising how low the bar is to get a generic made. Most generics do not contest the patent of the medication but show a bioequivalence which basically means that they have to show that the area under the curve of the delivery is roughly (and this is so broad that it is pretty easy to make) the same. They don’t even have to be the same delivery systems but the active ingredient has to be the same.

There are huge issues. Now this becomes a problem who switch or who get switched (e.g. a third party payer won’t pay for the trade name any further and so forces you to switch) because they can tell the difference. It may not matter as much for those who start from scratch as they wouldn’t know the difference.

At the end of the day, be a good consumer and ask questions.

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