Astral Codex Ten

Vyvanse

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Vyvanse

Article

Vyvanse is a recurring brand in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between January 25, 2021 and November 30, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “Vyvanse is the newest and most expensive member of the amphetamine stimulant family”; “Almost everyone likes Vyvanse better than what they were taking before”; “I will try Vyvanse (or some other solution to stimulant “crashes” )“. It most often appears alongside Dexedrine, FDA, Adam.

Metadata

  • Category: Brands
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: January 25, 2021
  • Last seen: November 30, 2022

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Know Your Amphetamines
January 25, 2021 · Original source
Vyvanse is the newest and most expensive member of the amphetamine stimulant family. It's lisdexamphetamine - ie Dexedrine attached to a random inactive molecule called lysine. As long as the lysine is attached, it can't stimulate anything. The body removes the lysine at a slow, consistent rate, which means that you get a slow, consistent release of stimulant into the bloodstream. This is advertised as especially good for people who are worried about addiction. It's hard to abuse or overdose on Vyvanse; no matter how much you take, your body will still only activate it at the same, slow rate.
My patients love Vyvanse. I try hard to convince people to take older, less expensive medications unless they're absolutely sure that the newer flashier one works better, but my patients are very convinced Vyvanse works better than Adderall. I used to think this was because something about the complicated timed release mechanism makes it "smoother". This is definitely what the pharma company that designed it wants me to think, and I admit there is some evidence for it.
But one neglected perspective is that once you take away the lysine, Vyvanse is basically Dexedrine, not Adderall. Almost everyone likes Vyvanse better than what they were taking before. But usually they were taking Adderall before. If Dexedrine is really better than Adderall - and common sense and the patient rating websites say it is - then that goes some of the way to explaining Vyvanse's superiority before we even get to the complicated timed release stuff. Pharmaceutical companies are always trying to re-release old medications in ways that bamboozle you into thinking they're new medications, so they can charge more money for them. In this case they did so good a job that I honestly can't tell if that's what they're doing or not.
Open Thread 158
January 31, 2021 · Original source
1. Thanks to everyone who commented on the amphetamines thread. The main things I learned: another way of thinking about the difference between racemic, d-, and meth- amphetamine is the ratio of central to peripheral effects. One major reason druggies prefer methamphetamine to unsubstituted is because it’s easier to make. I was wrong about Vyvanse; it gets cleaved by red blood cells, not the liver. And one reader links me to this conspiracy theory (sorry, it’s actually very reasonable, I just can’t help thinking of it that way) that Vyvanse doesn’t have superior pharmacokinetics to other amphetamines at all, and it’s all just Dexedrine + hype; I haven’t had enough time to examine the theory in depth but am interested in people’s thoughts.
Inline links: ratio of central to peripheral effects, easier to make, it gets cleaved by red blood cells, doesn’t have superior pharmacokinetics to other amphetamines
Highlights From The Comments On Semaglutide
November 30, 2022 · Original source
Doses needed for consistent weight loss/maintenance are much higher than for, say, ADHD. Plus every time the damned things wear off, ALL the hunger arrives at once. And you have to let them wear off, because otherwise sleep is terrible. (I was prescribed Dexedrine for weight loss several decades ago by a crazy doctor, and am now on a decently high dose of Vyvanse for ADHD).