Vyvanse Dosage | ADHD Information

Hi all -

Just hoping to learn from your experiences. My 7 yo son has been on 20 mg of Vyvanse for the past month and has been doing wonderfully until the past week or so. Now it seems to be wearing off by 1 p.m. or so.

His doctor said that his body is metabolizing the medication quickly and recommended him taking 20 mg in the morning and 20 mg at noon at school. Today will be his first day of doing this. I am concerned with side effects, etc.

Does anyone else do 2 daily doses of Vyvanse?

 

Thanks so much!!

coffeeebean,   I hope you hear from some folks who have experiences to share about taking two doses per day of Vyvanse.  In the meantime, here's my two-cents worth-- I've been prescribed 20 mg Adderall xr twice daily (Vyvanse is Shire's replacement of Adderall xr) which worked well for me.  After a couple years doing that, I switched and took a short-acting dose in the afternoon instead of a second long-acting dose.  I requested this change because rebound was no longer an issue (it was strong at first but slowly subsided) and I wanted the flexibility that comes with the short-acting version later in the day.

Your son's dose of Vyvanse is not large, and hopefully he won't experience any unreasonable side effects.   If you are wanting to keep the daily dose to the minimum that brings effective relief to his ADHD symptoms, you might talk to the doc about halving the afternoon dose and see if that works.  Even though from all outward appearances it looks like the morning dose has worn off, there's still active ingredient in his system, as recent studies found that residual medication remain well beyond the effective period.  Adding a booster in the afternoon rather than another full dose is a common practice for stimulants. 
Hmm... it's very possible that could end up working out for you. One also might just try upping the dosage to one single 30mg dose in the mornings, as that seems like it may very well also solve the problem. I would also be a little concerned of the higher risk of side effects appearing at 2 20mg doses a day, BUT different doctors have different strategies, and hopefully whatever one your doc decides to go with will work out for you, or rather, your child.
Also, sounds like the poster above is on the right track as well. Perhaps keep the 20mg vyvanse in the mornings with a small booster of Instant release adderall in the afternoons (since they dont make instant release vyvanse.) Looks like there are multiple solutions all with signifigant potential for solving your current problem, so that is good; if your docs original idea doesn't work, at least you know there are others to try. Good luck to you and your child, I think your problem has a very good chance of being solved and ending well, though, especially compared to others on this board, it could be alot worse. Hope it works out, let us know!