Individuals taking high doses of Adderall face more than a fivefold increased risk of developing psychosis or mania. Key factors include the lack of upper dosing guidelines and the notable increase in young adults using the medicine since the Covid-19 pandemic
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/high-doses-adderall-linked-heightened-052322240.html
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Adderall is an effective treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but a sharp rise in US prescriptions over the past two decades has sparked concerns among researchers about rare but serious side effects.
In a striking new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, a team led by psychiatrist Lauren Moran of Mass General Brigham in Boston found that individuals taking high doses of the stimulant face more than a fivefold increased risk of developing psychosis or mania.
Key factors include the lack of upper dosing guidelines and the notable increase in young adults using the medicine since the Covid-19 pandemic, driven in large part by the rise of telemedicine providers.
Moran told AFP her interest grew from her time at a hospital inpatient unit treating college students in the greater Boston area.
“We were just seeing a lot of people coming in without much of a psychiatric history, developing the first episode of psychosis or mania in the context of using prescription stimulants,” she said.
[https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230329](https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230329)
I do wonder how many of these states of psychosis were observed during a sudden withdrawal period considering the sudden lack of prescription adderall for many people earlier this year.
As someone with ADHD (on a generic Concerta equivalent) I sure find it terrifying that neurotypicals will abuse the drugs to the point where sufferers can’t get it (and don’t get me started on the fact that I forget to take my highly addictive drugs)
Serves them right if they break their brains. Now there’s more of us with broken brains.
A close relative had to stop taking hers on the weekends. Sleep problems, and volatile emotions (primarily anger, paranoia, and anxiety). She is soooo much healthier now that she has accepted she can’t be “on” all the time. She eats better, sleeps better, looks better. Our society over emphasizes productivity to the point of ill health.
My phone won’t allow me to open the link, so correct me if I’m mistaken, but I would assume people prescribed drugs such as Adderall would be more susceptible to psychosis and mania*?
* Edited spelling
I just kind of instinctually knew when I got on medicine for ADHD to only take what I need when I need it. If something is an addictive drug with negative health consequences for neurotypical folks, I assumed I was at least not immune to the physiological health effects if I’m taking it daily, especially if my dose was high. My brain might not get addicted to it but it’s going to have the same effect on my body as a neurotypical person.
I know multiple people that have been taking this since childhood and their brains are FRIED.
I actually do have a prescription but I use it three days a week at most.
My theory is that it makes it harder to sleep and inadequate sleep factors into the psychosis. They had to pair my adhd meds with seroquel and its been easier. But I actually can not sleep unless I have that.
Quite a bold title considering they freely admit to selection bias.
Me going into psychosis while taking Adderall was what caused me to quit, I thought I was being trained/tested by the government for some crazy top secret bs, ended up flushing my Xanax and Adderall because I thought they wanted me to quit. Ended up in the ER for like 2 weeks and getting hospitalized like 5 times over 4 months for psych issues until I came back to reality.
Without that happening I’m positive I would still be dependent on benzos, was prescribed an insane amount and abusing them. Was a wild way to quit but it got me away from the Rx.
I miss Adderall, I got tons of nothing done.
It completely changed my personality in my 20s. I lost the ability to “feel” the room or catch social nuance, became chronically sleep deprived, started drinking heavily to combat the withdrawal and paranoia that came with it.