is adderall helping anyone? At what dose?

It's controversial. My GP prescribed it, my ME/CF doc is vehemently against it. I figure the latter knows better.

I do find that a _very_ small amount, about 4mg (splitting a 20mg pill into quarters) provides a strong, temporary lift when I absolutely must get something done IF I have enough baseline strength. If not, it only keeps me awake and agitated when I'm exhausted. It helped some with correcting an inverted wake/sleep cycle (being exhausted days and awake/restless at night). It also causes a withdrawal effect after a few days - I can not take it for much longer than that, as it stops working.

OTOH, It's been a lifesaver on a few occasions bc I have no one who will take care of paperwork, errands etc when I'm incapacitated. I would still be homeless, and perhaps deceased due to that without the emergency kick. I wish I knew if it makes the underlying disease worse, better, or is simply borrowing energy.

I'd consult with a doc who has a substantial number of CF/ME patients before taking a speck of it. It's quite powerful and I suspect potentially harmful.

I don't follow the blogs, so if you need to discuss this further send a PM.

If you want to take it start with the lowest dose you possibly can (they make a 10mg tab that you could quarter if needed). Sometimes I just need a dose to get me out of that morning fog and severe stiffness and get me dressed and I will not need anymore the whole day. I will still take a nap, but getting up and going from that is usually easier, but not always.

Another good thing to do is to maybe take it for 5 days and then take 2 days off or take it for 3 weeks and take 1 week off. It is just a good way to get your body back in a rhythm of it's own and it will help prevent tolerance build up.

My ME/CFS doctor is the one that started me on it, but I had other issues that had come up after a sleep study (PSGT and MSLT) and was getting "0" mins of Stage 3 or 4 sleep and this was actually the 4th sleep study that I had. Two of the previous ones still had me getting "0" mins. of Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. My 3rd sleep study was done while I was taking 4.5 grams of Xyrem with 1 at bedtime and the 2nd approx. 3 hours later. During this sleep test I only got 9 mins. of Stage 3 or Stage 4 sleep. So much for Xyrem being the strongest deep sleep med.

The last test which included the MSLT (or Nap Test) the following day came back with a diagnosis of moderate to severe narcolepsy without cataplexy. This was obviously a deciding factor in continuing to take the Adderall and actually resulted in a mild increase in dosage.

I wish you the best in whatever decision you make!

Dr. K. at Open Medicine Clinic in Mountain View. He was on the research team at Stanford with Montoya for 7yrs or so. Mostly doing rituxmab pre trial/ I drove 10 hours to see him. I have taken Adderal when I was still trying to work for energy. That was many years ago. All depending on where you are with illness/tests etc./ I would not take it since I show Cox=S-B3 entrovirus which can effect the heart.