Adderall Helping my Depression?

So here is my dilemma. I am prescribed Adderall for my ADD, and I take other meds for my BP. The Adderall doesn't seem to be really helping my ADD, but, it helps keep the depression away, and helps me keep going (not in a hyper way)

If I don't take it, I am tired, unmotivated, and pretty much depressed.

My question is...It seems like the Adderall is a HUGE help with my depression (I am prone to major depression). Is this OK, or should I be taking something else to get that same effect?

Anyone else take Adderall for depression??

I am going to ask my pdoc (she is WONDERFUL) on the 31st, I just wanted to see if anyone else gets the same effect from Adderall???

yes but like u it was prescribed it for adhd. I don't see how much your taking but it's physically addictive and u can build a tolerance up kinda like the Prozac poop out

In the past, I was prescibed Ritalin to take in the morning for depression. It's a stimulant like Adderall. I've seen posts by others here who take stimulants as part of the regimen to manage their depression. Regardless of what it was supposed to treat, I think the bottom line is: Does it improve the quality of your life? You say it does, so I would go with that.

There really aren't other drugs that do what stimulants do. By all means tell your doctor about this. Most likely, your doctor will be fine with continuing it.

After decades of being prescribed all kinds of psychotropic drugs, I've concluded that the process doctors use to select psych drugs for any given patient is, basically, "throw stuff up against the wall and see what sticks." Yeah, they can give you an organized sounding rationale for what they choose. But it's so, so not like choosing an antibiotic for a specific infection.

My opinion is based not only on what I've gone through, but also on what I've seen working as a nurse.

Now, in my case, I have found that Vicodin (hydrocodone with Tylenol) occasionally gives me a very helpful lift in mood when I'm having a depressed episode. I absolutely will not go reporting that to any doctor, for fear I might lose my prescription for Vicodin, which I need for neck and back pain due to disk deterioration. Even, if the doctor, himself, didn't mind me using the Vicodin for depression, the federal government isn't too cool with that.

Meanwhile, I recently doubled the dose of amitriptyline (antidepressant) that I take, which my doctor allows. It hasn't much helped my depression, but it's done wonders for my back pain. (amitriptyline is known to have pain relieving properties.) That I would be willing to tell my doctor because using that drug to treat pain is a fairly common practice and not frowned upon by the federal DEA.

So there you go. I say, "Don't argue with success."

I have heard of stimulants being used off-label to treat depression.

Among people who have ADHD and don't have depression, stimulants often cause euphoria (feeling happier than you're supposed to), and it kind of makes sense that depression + euphoriant drug = normal mood.

My only concern would be whether it continues to work for more than a couple weeks at a time, if you need it to.

I have also found that many care providers will consider you to have depression just because you are terribly sad about ADHD-related life difficulties. Plus, there is a problem common among ADHD people (initiation impairment--just this weird urge to not do things) which is not widely recognized as an ADHD symptom but sounds really similar to certain depression symptoms depending on how you describe it.

Indeed. They mostly go by which drugs have been shown in the most studies to benefit the highest percentage of people with a particular diagnosis, but the diagnostic labels are based on symptoms (or worse yet, behaviors) not the biological cause. So Antidepressant #34630 might help 60% of people with "depression," but your depression might not even be the same thing as their depression. And some drugs don't get enough studies for certain conditions (e.g. there are some ideas that amantadine might help with ADHD, but there aren't many studies). So it's hard to tell what will work.

Cyllya - What you say about diagnostic labels being based on symptoms/behaviors and possibly lumping together disorders with widely divergent causes is, IMO, a very, very important insight. I wish more people thought about that.

A child with a high fever can have a seizure. An alcoholic in withdrawal can have a seizure. A person with a brain tumor can have a seizure. A diabetic who takes too much insulin can have a seizure. But we don't conclude that all these persons have the same diagnosis. They may all have the same symptom, but it really matters that, in each case, the cause is radically different.

There are many people, like myself, who experience frequent, wide variations in mood. That's simply a fact, observable by others. But I'm not convinced that all of us who experience this instability of mood/affect are necessarily afflicted with the same pathology. To say my mood varies a lot because I have bipolar disorder is like saying I'm often late for appointments because I have "arriving-on-time-disorder." (which, btw, I do have.)

We have to have categories (diagnostic labels) to sort stuff into, but we ought not, IMHO, to take these categories too overly seriously.

Yes what u say rose is true psychiatric meds are the only meds u can prescribe with just a symptom not a sign. This is very bad I think. They have no proof of chemical imbalance thats why u see more and more types. What they did was create a condition general anxiety disorder and assigned Paxil to it look in the DSM they have come up with more conditions now than ever. I think they need to focus more on finding a way to get us off the drugs the symptoms we take them for actually get worse when you try to taper it so really it didn't help. By the way heroin was prescribed for depression in the 1920's and Freud prescribed cocaine he also used it himself and Ritalin has almost the same chemical compounds as cocaine its better because it has a longer half life. I'm addicted to this medicine oh I mean dependent.

Adderall can cause an increase in dopamine, one of the three main neurotransmitters that antidepressants are designed to increase. Most increase the serotonin and/or norepinephrine, though. Wellbutrin is an NDRI but is supposedly poor at actually increasing dopamine. I was planning to ask my doc for adderall at my next visit because I suspect I'm low on dopamine.

It really,really helps guys. My pdoc knows it helps me, and she is OK with it. I have been on the same dose for months. Sometimes I take PID, TID if necessary.

It has been a lifesaver