ADHD medication (Elvanse) interactions

[PenguinLover24]

Hi! Might be a long one but I'll try and get to the point!

I've recently been diagnosed with ADHD (privately) and I am currently titrating elvanse to see what dose works best for me.

I was on 50mg and doing well and all of a sudden they stopped working and oh my god I thought my life was over as everything I was dealing with previously came back ten fold.

They put me on 70mg and for the last three days I've had bad side effects and questioning if the dose is too high for me. Now I know that the first few days can have side effects and it can take a few days for the body to adjust but it felt a bit too much.

Previous doses I've had trouble sleeping, slight pulse rate increase and a little jittery for the first 2/3 days that have always subsided.

2 days on 70mg I felt like I was zombie-like, severe headaches, jittery but more than I've ever experienced, my heart rate was faster and my chest felt right when I stood up / walked up stairs, I couldn't sleep more than 3 hours a night.

Day 3, oh my god. The migraine I had was so severe I nearly went to a and e I thought I was dying. I didn't want to jump right in with my imigran nasal spray as it's a triptan and there is caution advised on mixing stimulants and triptans as it can cause serotonin syndrome.

So I tried paracetamol, no improvement, 4 hours later I tried over the counter co-codamol. I have asked the pharmacist before if I am allowed to take this and he said yes there is no interaction between them, I checked again when buying them and told them I was on elvanse and he said again it was fine.

Now, I have no idea if it was mixing them together or if it's because the side effects ramped up on day 3 but I thought I was going to die.

My head felt like it was going to explode, both with the migraine and a headache at the base of the back of my head / top of neck, my heart felt like it was raging and beating out of my chest but my pulse was 67 which i have never had in my life as I usually run a bit high. I felt like I could barely stand and when I did I vomited. It was so scary I even thought about phoning NHS 24 but I was hoping it would eventually just pass which it did by this morning.

I already think that the 70 is too high for me so I'm not taking it again, but I'm wondering if it was just the 70 showing it's full evil in me or if it was mixing these two medication.

Really just posting to see if anyone has had anything similar happen? Or if you have been on elvanse and you felt your dosage was too high what made you feel like this?

Thanks x

I think you would be best off discussing this with a doctor/your prescriber. Can you contact them and get an earlier appointment to do that?

When you say it suddenly stopped working, how long had you been taking it for at that point and was there anything else which could have coincided e.g. new bottle of medication (batch differences), point in menstrual cycle, lack of sleep, change of diet, change in routine?

Hey! I managed to get a hold of them the next day and they basically said those were overdose symptoms and the dose was too high for me. I went down to 60mg and no issues. I was on 50mg for 5 weeks. Unsure if anything contributed to it no longer working as I have a young baby and struggling with life in general if I'm honest!

Oh, doh, sorry, I didn't notice the date of the post. Glad that you found a dose which works better :)

Weird they put you in 70 from 50. They should have had you on 60 for 2-3 weeks minimum then 70 if needed.
Sometimes like you have found, a dose stops working. So you may have found 60 ok for 2 months then needed 70 and been ok on it.
It's the jump I think that's caused the problem

Just seems to be how my private prescriber works, I actually didn't even know it came in 20mg / 40mg / 60mg I was under the impression from them it was 30/50/70mg.

Morning, I am on elvanse and wanted to share my experience.

So started on 30mg and then after 9 months had a med review and they wanted to up it to 50mg as it wears off around 2pm, I asked for a gradual increase so 40 mg and then didn't see much difference.

Then upped to 50mg 6 weeks ago and submitted my blood pressure etc

Since then feeling jittery, snappy and paranoid and exhausted and headaches.
Called the team up and emailed requesting it be lowered to 40mg as I was having the above symptoms
They basically then told me my blood pressure reading submitted 3/4 weeks ago was dangerously high and I needed an emergency appt, to stop taking the meds and contact them after the blood pressure appt today to tell them how I got on and my new prescription will be given

I just wanted to point out that it was not until I told them of my symptoms they actually looked at my blood pressure (which has always been low previously)

They were not property monitoring me so I would always check your results on line to see if the blood pressure reading was safe etc

This is the adhd service for my county btw.

Things though that do massively affect medication effectiveness
Menstrual cycle- your she's symptoms
Will be miles worse so the pills feel weaker but in reality it's just your symptoms are worse
Full moon- this has a huge impact- keep a diary if you don't believe me or ask any SEN teacher / emergency worker
Weight drops in weight affect dosage need
Sleep