this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
33 points (97.1% liked)

ADHD

9690 readers
30 users here now

A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

Encouraged:

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Autism

ADHD Memes

Bipolar Disorder

Therapy

Mental Health

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm having such a hard time finding adderral at pharmacies around me. Is there any alternatives that still work well for you? I'm about to have a follow up with my doctor. Might ask about alternatives. I'm on 20mg adderral XR.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Smithsonian 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, Adderall is a mixture of dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine (which are the right- and left-handed molecules of amphetamine).

Vyvanse is dextroamphetamine molecule attached to an extra Lysine amino-acid molecule. In this bound state, it doesn't really do anything in the body; the body will, however, metabolize it and break it into its constituent parts of dextroamphetamine and lysine.

Adderall XR (and many extended release medications) rely on adding a coating that will take the body a longer time to break down before releasing the medication, which results in an initial dose with a secondary dose being released later.

Vyvanse is much different in that regard, as the body is continuously breaking the double-molecule medication apart, providing a steady release of the medication throughout the day instead of just two (or, in the case of newer extra-extended release version, three) "bursts".