Hello!
This is my first post here in this forum. I've searched for an answer to this question before posting it, but I only went back to this forum's posts from October of last year.
I take 30 mg. generic Adderall 2x daily, and have for about 14 months. It has helped me. Don't know if it is the BEST medication for me, but because of my past experiences with unpleasant side effects of psychiatric medications, I'm content with it. Also, I'll mention that the prospect of taking a daily medication for the rest of my life led me to postpone medication therapy for a year after my doctor initially recommended it. This was not due to religious beliefs, but rather my upbringing that stressed medicines are to be taken when you are sick and then stopped when you are well. My parent's income level played a big part in that. As a college-educated professional, that viewpoint has changed, but not without very prolonged discussion about alternatives with my physician.
At my local adult ADHD support group meeting last night, two people mentioned their prescriptions were refilled with a different kind of generic Adderall. I take a generic orange tablet, which I believe is manufactured by Barr. It has "30" on one scored side, and "b 974" on the other. The two group participants who mentioned their Rx had been filled with a different pill stated their pills were pink, and scored four times, and were rectangular. Both stated they noticed a difference. One had increased gastrointestinal distress, another found the effects of ADHD increasing, as if the new generic was more of a placebo.
I have done some online research about differences in manufacturing between generics and their original brands. There is not supposed to be any differences that matter in terms of the drugs' effectiveness.
Our counselor said she would take these concerns to a psychiatrist, but we don't meet again for two weeks. My prescription is to be refilled this week, and I am wondering what to do.
Has anyone else had difficulties with this new (new to us, anyway) generic? Should I ask my pharmacist in advance what generic they use?
Any insight would be helpful. Thank you.
I did find a site called People's Pharmacy that had hundreds of complaints about generic antidepressants. Most however were about Welbutrin generics.
I spoke with a pharmacist today, and got the expected reply: Generics work just as well as name-brands. When I told him about the experiences of two others in my ADHD support group, he dismissed the cause of any unusual side effects as NOT being related to the generic.
I hope to be able to talk to my doctor tomorrow. But would still appreciate any others' experiences with generic Adderall.
[QUOTE=iamsamz] John D, what dose of your medication do you take? Is it possible that your doctor had written your script for a higher dose and instructed you to take a lower dose? Or are you sending in one perscription and recieving refills each month. [/QUOTE]
my script is for 40 mg Adderall/day (20 mg XR, 20 mg IR). My doc didn't write a script for a higher dose--he's way too conservative to do something like that with this drug!
No, I did my "homework" and brought all instructions, addresses, and phone numbers to my regular "med management" appointment when I proposed going from monthly to quarterly visits and scripts. For the "homework part", I first called my health insurer and asked them if I could get a 90 day script for adderall. They said yes. I asked them how I go about doing this. They said either my doctor's office could mail them the script, or my doc could give the script to me and I could take it to one of the participating pharmacies in my city. First I tried the mail route, which worked fine but I was nervous that should it "get lost in the mail"... no one was going to believe me!
So now I take the script for a 90 day supply to one of the participating pharmacies--which usually doesn't have that much adderall on hand so they freak out and I have to wait while they order more (small city!). But in the end I get a 90 day supply and pay only a one-month co-pay, which for XR saves me 60 bucks! I have no cancer or other types of malaise that would cause me to qualify for one of the exceptions in your citation... I suggest that you or anyone with a health insurance plan call your insurer and check out whether the 90 day script option is available to you...
Unfortunately, I do not have insurance, which is why the generics are important to me. As for a longer supply than 30 days, there sure could be some benefits to this for some. Cost is my big consideration and the monthly for the generics is about all I can afford. Since my doctor encourages me to take medication holidays, when I see him for my 90-day med management meeting, I take all "leftovers" in with me and ask him to reduce the next prescription by the number of leftovers I have...saves a little bit more money!nslake,
Just found this and although I haven't finished reading all of it ( I have add and really shouldn't be sitting at the computer right now so I'll finish it later) thought you might find it interesting/helpful.
I had read something similar at one point about the dexedrine that I take saying that the name brand was much more effective and then also that one generic was prefered over another.
I searched around until I found a pharmacy that sold the name brand, my insurance won't cover a name brand med. if a generic is available unless the doctor indicates that the name brand is medically necessary. Being adiment about seeing what difference there might be I paid out of pocket. I took it only for that one month but did not really see any difference.
I have been back and forth between the two generics, barr and malkondrit (sp), and also have not seen any difference.
The way I understand generics they have to be identical to name brand drugs in terms of the active ingrediants however the inert ingrediants may vary. I'm sure there is a chance that these substances might have the effect of changing the way your body uses the medication.
Adderall, being a tablet, may have more of this type of ingrediant to cause a possible interferance than the dexedrine capsuls that I take.
I do go out of my way when it comes to getting the generic of my xanax but that is only because the one that I prefer is oval shaped rather than round and the oval is much easier to split in half. I try to use the smallest dose of that as I can so being able to break the tablets easier is a big plus for me.
I actually would be surprised if your doctor would respond any differently than the pharmasist. I think one of the courses they have to take in med/pharmacology school trains them on standard responses to certain questions. Maybe you'll get lucky and your doctor wasn't paying attention that day.
Let us know what you get for an answer.
iamsamz.... you found what??
[QUOTE=John D]iamsamz.... you found what??[/QUOTE]
I found that my medication had not kicked in yet!
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-wax1 7dec17,0,1767527.story
Glad to hear your doctor was at least willing to show support for your concerns. It is so rare to hear of doctors that don't come back with the standard response.
Good luck next month when you have to deal with this again.
In my experience, the generic brand didn't have much effect on me, but the "regular" brand did. Like I was taking it like I had been, but I didn't feel like I was really on it. I asked my doctor, and she said that it wasn't unheard of.Thankfully, I've avoided any potential problems for now, but it did take some work.
I was able to refill my prescription by calling three pharmacies to see who still had the Barr generic in stock. My usual one did not, but one I've never used before (yet it is a national chain pharmacy) did. The pharmacist told me, however, they would be switching in the near future. One other thing I really want to mention: the pharmacist recited the usual "generics are equal in quality to name brand" line, and gave me a pamphlet proclaiming, if it's FDA approved, it MUST be safe.
I was also able to discuss this with my doctor before my refill. He took a more helpful and reasonable approach than the pharmacist. He said if I had any problems or noticed any differences with a new generic, I needed to report those to him. He told me he could discuss my concerns with the pharmacist and request the pharmacy order a supply of the preferred generic (but couldn't "make them" do that). He also gave me information on prescription assistance programs in case I wanted to switch to the name brand Adderall.
I'll likely face this issue again next month. I am so very reluctant to switch from something that works for me. Hopefully I can find a pharmacy that will agree to stock my preferred generic. And as I appreciate the responses to my initial post, I'd similarly appreciate hearing of any others' experiences with different generic Adderall.
nslake39465.5568402778nslake, if you have health insurance, check to see if they allow a 3-month supply prescription. Mine does, and it not only saves $$ (I pay the montly co-payment amount but get a three month supply) but best of all avoids the hassle of getting the script then filling it on a monthly basis.John D, what medication do you take?
It's my understanding that adderall and dexedrine etc. are schedule II drugs and therefore need a new perscription each month.
[QUOTE=John D]nslake, if you have health insurance, check to see if they allow a 3-month supply prescription. Mine does, and it not only saves $$ (I pay the montly co-payment amount but get a three month supply) but best of all avoids the hassle of getting the script then filling it on a monthly basis. [/QUOTE]
My prescription is a Schedule II, which means I can only receive a 30-day supply at a time, and must actually have an appointment to see my physician every 3 months.
I take Adderall. I too assumed that I could only get a one-month script, but I made some phone calls and found out a three-month script was legal and allowed by my health insurer. My doc went along with it (he apparently didn't know it was possible either) so I'm saving on gas money and co-payments. I don't know, maybe other states restrict scrips to 1 month. If you opt for the 3 monther, check w/ your insurer to find out which pharmacy near you will handle it for 1 co-pay (some charge more). Or, you can mail-order thru pharmacy connected to your insurer if that's an option.
[edit] Schedule II drugs Main article: List of Schedule II drugs
Findings required:
(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. (B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. (C) Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.These drugs are only available by prescription, and distribution is carefully controlled and monitored by the DEA. Oral prescriptions are allowed, except that the prescription is limited to 30 days worth of doses, although exceptions are made for cancer patients, burn victims, etc. and oral prescriptions for schedule II drugs must be confirmed in writing within 3 days. No refills are allowed. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is finalizing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published on September 6, 2006 (71 FR 52724). In that document, DEA proposed to amend its regulations to allow practitioners to provide individual patients with multiple prescriptions, to be filled sequentially, for the same schedule II controlled substance, with such multiple prescriptions having the combined effect of allowing a patient to receive over time up to a 90- day supply of that controlled substance. This went in to effect December 19, 2007. Also, Schedule II drugs are subject to production quotas set by the DEA. Some of these drugs (notably Fentanyl in non-transdermal form) are never given to patients for home use, but are administered only by a physician. Fentanyl can be given to patients for home use in Duragesic transdermal therapeutic system patch form. The prescription must be hand delivered within 7 days to the pharmacy and the prescription is limited to 30 days worth of doses.
John D, what dose of your medication do you take? Is it possible that your doctor had written your script for a higher dose and instructed you to take a lower dose? Or are you sending in one perscription and recieving refills each month.
The doctor I had been seeing between fall 2005 and spring 2007 was writing me three seperate perscriptions at each visit, dated one month apart. Sounds like he was a little pro active?
At my last visit with my current doctor, Dec. 14, 2007, I was given two perscriptions. One for Dec. and one for January. A little ahead of the approval mentioned above but in keeping with the concept.
Anyway, sounds like the laws are changing but these are still sticky meds to deal with.
we are no longer using stimulant meds, but we have been able to use mail order for 90 script for a while or my doctor gave us two-tree months worth of prescriptions for a long time dated ahead. for 30 days This may be why they're changing the law, it was happening anyway.......................