Tell me about Vyvanese for inattentive ADHD

DD2 has been diagnosed with inattentive ADHD and it has been recommended that she try Vyvanse. Any thoughts or complaints? How soon before we start seeing results?

As far as I can tell our insurance covers this, but since I am picking this up at the drs. office since they say it can't be picked up at the pharmacy because it is a controlled substance I may have to argue later with insurance, but at this point I am just happy to have something to try and am glad I stuck to my instincts on this.

(ETA: here is the link to my original post from summer 2015):
http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/sho...69#post4119069


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I don't have experience with Vyvanse, but I've never heard of only picking up a controlled substance and a doctor's office. We pick them up at the pharmacy, but have to show our drivers license, which they make a copy of. The prescription itself is also different. We do have to pick up the written prescription, not the actual pills, ie, the doctor can not just call it in to the local pharmacy.

So I think you mean the scrip has to be picked up. Generally that is true.

However, our doctor can send them in to the pharmacy electronically, but she has to use an electronic ID key to do it. Not all pharmacies accept it and not all doctors pay to have this service. She also writes us a 90 day scrip, which is amazing.

Is there a particular reason the doctor wants to start with Vyvanse? I only ask because 1) it's a long acting, and 2) it is more expensive than many of the other drugs that are available.

For ADHD meds there are generally 2 categories.

First is the methyphenidate class. This is Ritalin (which is a short acting med) and it has many different long acting forms (Metadate, Ritalin LA, Concerta, etc.). These have the advantage of being incredibly cheap and generally easy to obtain.

The second class is dextroamphetamines. These are Adderall (dexedrine) and it also has long acting forms (Adderall XR, Vyvanse, etc.).

Generally they have you start with a low dose and then increase until you find the lowest dose that is effective. So in the beginning it is a huge pain because you will have to pick up those paper scrips at the doctor's office.

Inattentive can be trickier to get the right dose. My older DD was 13 when she started taking ADHD meds for her inattentive, so she was able to tell us very accurately when the dose was effective. She couldn't tell a difference at all at first, and then we had to increase. But she was able to report within a a few days that she was able to concentrate much easier at school and was able to focus to get homework done at night.

If she has a lot of homework, she may need an afternoon dose of a short acting medication for that. Generally that is taken after school, early enough that she can still go to bed easy at night.

We tried it, but it lasted way too long. Still trying to find the perfect med....

Eta:. When we tried it, they had a discount card that you could get one month free, up to 4 separate scripts. We did 10 days at a time on three different doses to find a good dose.

No experience with Vyvanese, but DD was briefly on two other stimulates. It was awful. I posted about it here. She has hyperactive ADHD, so that could be the difference. We finally settled on Intuniv and it has been very helpful.
With the controlled meds, we had to pick up the script at the Dr's office (it couldn't be called in) and had to show ID at the pharmacy. Intuniv isn't controlled, so it's a lot easier to get filled. Good luck, sometimes it takes a few tries to find the right medication. It can be quite discouraging, but worth it once it's figured out.


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