i sometimes take prescribed concerta, it's a performance limiter b/c it reduces your cardiac reserve. i try to avoid taking it for several weeks before any big competitions.

I did research on this a few years back, as I have narcolepsy and I'm on prescription stimulants to manage that. I have to take my meds in competition, as if I don't I am likely to doze off on the bike (or less likely the run, though for obvious reasons that's not as dangerous). And before anyone gets on me for that, believe me these meds do not create an advantage, they just bring me to about 80-90% of where people without this condition exist.

The rules are confusing as hell, but what I gathered is that if you are what is termed a "recreational" athlete, versus a national athlete, you will not be found in violation of the doping rules if (1) the meds are banned in-competition only, versus banned all the time, e.g., Ritalin v. EPO; (2) if it's the first time you had an adverse doping test result. This is true even without obtaining a TUE in advance. The definition of "recreational" athlete is still a little fuzzy to me, but I read it to mean that even if you are getting AG podiums at local events, as long as you are not competing at the national, international, elite or pro level, then you'll be ok without a TUE through your first doping test.

As for me, I went without the TUE until this year, when I lost weight and got faster, opening the door to the bigger events (still only as AG, no hope of OA placements). My TUE is in process now. I don't expect any issues receiving it, since I can document my condition pretty much to birth, including diagnosis well before I started competing in any type of events, and I fall squarely in the criteria for the TUE.

Here's the USADA guide on this:

https://www.usada.org/...loads/tue_policy.pdf

Experienced Adderall user here. I can answer a couple of your questions based on my experience.

1) In order to have the effects of the drug, you have to take it THAT DAY. I do not know how long you have to go without it in order to pass a drug test. But I do know that you won't be get benefits from the drug on race day unless you actually take it on that day.

4) Withdrawal symptoms are the worst when the medicine wears off from the day you take it. In other words, you have the potential of getting withdrawal symptoms every day you take the drug. If you go a day without the drug, any withdrawal symptoms you have that day won't be as bad as the ones you already had the night before.

In fact, going an occasional day off from the drug won't make withdrawal symptoms worse. It will make them better. When I used to take it, the doctors told me to not take it on weekends unless I needed to. Going without the drug gives your nervous system an opportunity to "reset", which will decrease likeliness for dependence on the drug and decrease withdrawal symptoms. So, when I used to take it, I only took it on days that I needed to.


Let me give you a warning: it is NOT a safe drug. I had to stop taking it after a few years because the side effects progressively for worse. Do whatever you can to decrease your dosage. For example, ask your doctor if you can take two instant release with half your dosage (2x/day) instead of full dosage (1x/day). That way, you have the option of not taking your second dose on days that you only need it for the first half of the day. So, if you're taking 20mil times release once a day, see if you can take a 10mil in the early morning and another one in the late morning/early afternoon.

^This

I'm glad someone is saying this. Watch "Take Your Pills" on Netflix, very interesting movie.

Not sure why this thread popped up again years later. Thanks for all the helpful thoughts and suggestions. I ended up stopping adderall after about a week (which was months away on either side from any of my competitions) due to concerns about my long-term health and in part due to the helpful posts here. I do my best to manage the ADHD in other ways (caffeine, alpha-waves, consistent schedule, etc.), and this works OK. I'm sure it would be easier on adderall, but I'm glad I don't have to resort to that given the mixed long-term reviews.

To those who weren't sure, the reason I started this thread was to make sure to stay within both the letter and the spirit of the rules. The goal was not to push the boundaries but to ensure that I refrain from pushing the boundaries, even by accident. Just wanted to clarify that point.

Glad to have been some help.

I mean for this to be pointed, but not personally confrontational. You and others on this thread potentially provided misinformation based on societal prejudice organist amphetamines.

Stimulants (I.e. amphetamines) are the first line medications for ADHD. First line means offer this first, if it doesn’t work switch to something else.

If you have ADHD and if you need a stimulant to treat it, then you need to take a stimulant, even if it means applying for a TUE for your sanctioned races. I can agree that not everyone with ADHD needs a stimulant. If you find that the side effects of stimulants outweigh the therapeutic benefits, then there are non-stimulant alternatives. Strattera, guanfacine, and clonidine are the mentioned non-prohibited options, I.e. use of those shouldn’t require a TUE. Wellbutrin, normally an antidepressant, is another one that I think is an off-label use and isn’t specifically mentioned in the document. People should not be offered a non-stimulant only because they or the prescriber or random people on the Internet have bought into societal stereotypes about stimulants.

For the record, here is the current WADA guideline for ADHD. One relevant quote, in section 3c on treatment, is

As to dosage, I don’t know what dose would confer a significant boost in performance. I will hazard a guess that typical therapeutic doses may be lower than what you’d need or want for doping. I confess I don’t know for sure. The WADA doc does mention that you can use long-release versions, which I’d guess are less likely to enhance sports performance.

Let me explain my story. I was diagnosed with a Addhd in 1965. At that time Ritalin was only treatment I believe though I could be wrong. In those days the understanding was that you grew out of as you became an adult. I live in Rhode Island happened upon a support group for Adult Add. As an it adult says with you. In this group you would find who some use meds and others like me who use exercise,yoga etc.

Panel of experts right here. Lol.

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

Its handled a bit different by national antidoping authorities for example

CCES doesnt want to deal with excess paperwork for masters / non testing pool atheletes and you complete a retroactive TUE if you get tested and have been taking ADHD meds.

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

'murica

Since we're all giving our two bits, I'll add mine.

1. Doctors are smart, experienced, and should definitely be one of the important sources you consider as you make a decision. No Source Needed.
2. Doctors even with the best knowledge are wrong, frequently when it comes to major issues, so you can be certain they'll make many mistakes on minor ones too. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/...e_of_death_in_the_us
3. Adderall is overprescribed. https://www.tctmd.com/...ver-future-cv-events
4. Exercise is an effective drug for ADHD https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC6945516/
4.2 I assume since you're racing well you exercise already, but I just wanted that fact out there. Also consider other factors like sleep and it's effect on adhd. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...20and%20impulsivity.
5. Long term intervention with adderall vs. control group showed no long term improvement in adderall group. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29530108/
6. Adderall has plenty of its own negative effects that other options like clean diet, exercise, no screens at night, plenty of sleep, etc don't have. https://newenglandmedicalgroup.com/...cts-of-adderall-use/
7. Sleep is adversely affected by Adderall and ADHD and sleep are tightly linked. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC3441938/
8. You can prove anything with statistics, so take all the above with two bits of salt. https://skspotlighthome.files.wordpress.com/...omer-stats-quote.jpg

I hope whoever provided you with advice to take adderall gave you trustworthy sources to consider, if they gave you less sources than I did, but a bill and a prescription, well, I assume as kind and smart as they are, the nature of the processes they live in day-in and day-out has them more focused on doing a job they get paid for then educating a patient to make their own decisions.

Hopefully his attention is solid in the five years since he asked...

Hi -psychiatrist here
1)adderall has a relatively short half life and should have minimal physiologic effects after 8-12 hours. It is dosed typically twice a day because it is metabolized rapidly. If you took it Friday and did not take it Saturday and raced Saturday unless you were a slow metabolizer (rare) you have no effects physiologically and the serum levels would be negligible to zero. So that is to say if you took it Friday and didn’t take it Saturday it would be out of your system for sure by Sunday.
2) I don’t know what Wada would say about a therapeutic exemption but from an ethical place I would weigh in that you’re ok racing 48 hours after last dose (and realistically 24 hours post dose).
3) I know of no research studying stimulants effects on athletics. Highly suspect there is a strong PE effect for sports like archery and shooting and golf. For endurance sports it probably has modest effect increasing cardiac output but will not make a mule into a racehorse to loosely paraphrase Paul Sherwen or Phil Liggett.
4) there should be minimal physical withdrawal from stimulants unless you are taking huge doses. May be some psychological effect where you feel less alert or attentive on days you don’t take it.
Hope that helps.

Since this thread keeps getting bumped every couple of years (and into my inbox), I'll follow up. As far as I'm concerned, this thread can be locked, if that seems appropriate to the moderators.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I ended up taking adderall only a few times before deciding it's not for me. This was all during a period where I didn't race for several months, so I didn't end up having to worry about going off it before a race. For the posters worried I was trying to get an advantage, just the opposite; even though some people might think it's no big deal racing at a (relatively) lower level and taking something for a real medical reason, I wanted to be extra sure not to violate either the letter OR the spirit of the rule, from any angle.

I don't have anything to say about managing adderall while in racing season since I never ended up having to deal with that. The one thing (perhaps obvious) I have learned is that managing focus isn't just a case of taking a pill and being fine. ADHD medication didn't end up working for me, but even if it had, I don't believe it would have been a shortcut to better focus. Over the past few years, I have worked on developing routine/environment/mindset to help my focus be at my best, and it's made a big (slow, hard-won) difference. I've learned a lot about myself in this way, and even if I were taking ADHD medication, I think those other factors still would have been necessary.