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Muscle pain from Vyvanse and methylphenidate.

ptas profile image
ptas
15 Replies

What to do about muscle soreness and pain caused by ADD meds. I've tried Vyvanse, Adderal, and methylphenidate. Same results-pain. Help.

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ptas
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15 Replies
Tiggerakafidgity profile image
Tiggerakafidgity

Hmmmm very strange I’ve never had any muscle aches from any of the meds you’ve mentioned.

Firstly what if any other meds are you ?

If you were say on med A&B plus your adhd meds,are meds A&B the same if so it could be the other meds if your on any not mixing well.

The only other things are have you enough salt in your diet or water.

As don’t forget there stimulants ie like speed which can rapidly dehydrate you.

Also don’t have grape fruit either

Hope this may help

Ps it could possibly be your just dehydrated seeing as our body is 75% water your muscles can get sore.

Also do you train or do manual labour ?

T

ptas profile image
ptas in reply to Tiggerakafidgity

Thanks for the info. I only take spironolact. I've read it could be the extended release ingredients vs immediate release. Vyvanse doesn't make that, but Adderall does. I do yoga and make sure I'm not dehydrated. Tried a whole host of supplements and would love to stay on Vyvanse since its been the most effective for ADD and depression, but....that pain!!

Justin_sane profile image
Justin_sane in reply to ptas

Spironolactone can easily land you in the ER with low blood pressure, dehydration, and messed up minerals

Tiggerakafidgity profile image
Tiggerakafidgity

Hi again

I’ve found a little info.

Sorry as I’m busy but here goes

Stimulants can make your blood vessels constrict, raise your blood pressure, and make your heart beat faster. In some cases, Adderall can cause further interference with your blood circulation. Your toes and fingers may become numb, or start to hurt.

ptas profile image
ptas in reply to Tiggerakafidgity

Thanks for the info. Im gonna ask my Dr. to prescribe something thats not extended release. Read somewhere that could contribute to sore muscles. Or I may try brand name concerta. Also read that generic methylphenidate is nothing like the brand name.

Laurabb profile image
Laurabb

I had some of that also and lowering the dose helped. It’s a compromise either way. Yoga and massage help. But all the meds seem to tighten me up all over. If I take as much as my brain needs to somewhat function, def side effects.

ptas profile image
ptas in reply to Laurabb

Thanks. I lowered the dose of Vyvanse from 30 to 20, then to 10mg, but to no avail. Still sore muscles and not the kind you can just massage away like after an intense workout. So sad. Feel like a 95 yr. old body with a 25 yr old brain when I'm on it. A cruel joke.

laurent557 profile image
laurent557 in reply to ptas

I get that too. I HAVE to stretch every morning. I do neck exercises and 30 min of yoga and that usually gets my body relaxed enough for the day. I also try to take a 30 min walk at some point or an hour workout if I can. That will definitely help.

Is yours in your shoulders and back like mine? I do neck stretches: look left to right, up to down, side to side, all 8 times each and repeat, then do neck rolls 8 times each side. Do shoulder raises and drops 8 times, then separate shoulder raises 8 times, bend over and stretch my hamstrings and let your head and neck fall. Walk out into downward dog.

This is necessary for me everyday or I am in excruciating pain because of my Extended release Adderal.

Also try to drown myself n water all day!

Hope ths helps!

ptas profile image
ptas

Wow!! Yes. Exactly in my neck and shoulders and it is excruciating. I actually stopped taking Vyvanse because of this and it broke my heart. That was the only med that addressed ADD and depression for me, after 20 years on bupropion. So if you do all those exercises religiously every morning after taking your med, you don't get any pain in early afternoon or evening? I just bought L-arginine and coq10 supplements to address vessel constriction, but I will def try all the exercises. Also read that its the extended release factor that causes the pain. You've been a big help. So weird that so few of us get this side effect.

RosieHaze profile image
RosieHaze

Did you ever find an answer to this? I’m in the same boat. Taking Vyvanse has changed my life! I can’t go back to how I was before. But the pain has been constant for 3 months, neck, upper back, shoulders. Every song day I’m in so much pain it brings me to tears. I do 30 minutes targeted yoga at lunch time, specifically for this area. Each day I have to stop work 1-2 hours early because I just can’t sit at the desk any longer, the pain is just too intense. So I walk 4 miles but it doesn’t help. Nothing helps. I drink about 1.5 -2 litres of water a day. Has anyone found anything that works? I can’t bare this any more. 😞

CMrJ profile image
CMrJ in reply to RosieHaze

Ive been having gradually increasing somatic issues since i started taking this beginning of the year, ending with scoliosis and a re-slipped disk, as well as extremely tight hamstrings, neck, shoulders and back, along with what feels like tense wires pretty much all over, but primarily in the arms and legs (even the intercostal muscles between the ribs are so tight taking deep breaths can be painful).

I guess i just didnt connect the dots until recently when I realized that i kept my jaw and fists clenched passively. I have since gone down in dosage somewhat (from jan starting at 30 and gradually increasing to 90 and now down to about 60, taken as 30 + 30 with about 5 - 6 hours in between) what happened was that I lost some of the benefits of the meds, the passive clenching has improved a little but I can definitely tell that there is constant tension in my muscles.

What i find works best is simply moving and doing light physical work and/or ointments like icy-hot or a hot shower / sauna, either constantly or at regular and quite frequent intervals.

Basically trying to counter the stiffness caused by the meds by keeping the muscles warm.

One thing that did help was that I got a standing desk with a high chair which allows for switching between the two should one become uncomfortable.

Sometimes even the lightest workout can do wonders as well, maybe get a balance board or rubber band for some light excercises that can be done while remaining stationary at your desk? Or go for a brisk lunge walk to the toilet / coffee machine every so often, if you cant justify doing squats at your desk.

I did however read a medical report on this recently where a patient had decided to stop taking the medication and 5 days later was well enough that he could resume physical activity (from being in so much pain that he couldn't, for reference, the patient was 12 years old).

Bar quitting vyvanse or finding a dosage low enough that countering it with lifestyle choices I don't think there is much to be done about the cause of the issues, unless its some complex chemical interaction causing nutrient deficiencies in the muscles themselves or something of the sort, but since I ate magnesium, iron and general purpose vitamin supplements with no noticeable change I don't think it's anything I could do anything about anyway.

I've decided to have a weeks pause to see if there are any improvements and try to weigh them against losing the benefits of vyvanse, and then simply try to decide whether or not id like to put the extra effort in a day towards being pain free or towards trying to remain organized mentally.

Personally I feel like the constant pain causes my adhd problems to magnify significantly as the pain tugs at my attention constantly, so should I find I can only get improvements by quitting vyvanse entirely I'm sad to say I would have to, despite feeling like you in that it has improved everything else significantly - but no amount of improvements to my calculus is worth feeling like a stiff 80 year old in constant pain and discomfort.

Dn2xs profile image
Dn2xs in reply to CMrJ

I also suffer muscle pain. Primarily in the quads and lower back. Only occurs in the spring and summer months, and disappears in the fall and winter. Started about 5 years ago. I have been on 30mg of Vyvanse for 5-6 years to address ADHD. Cycling is my sport. I first described the muscle pain as cramps, then last year, I described it as a sharp pain in my quads. I have seen 3 different specialists and have had lots of blood work. Generally, my blood work shows a very high CRP number and a low phosphate number. I was told to supplement with sodium phosphate tablets during the cycling season. My initial triggers appear to be exercise, coffee, and periods of rest. I can also feel it coming on. I will call my doctor and look at alternatives to Vyvanse. I am also wondering if I don't take my pill for a few days, or have run out, then take it, does it bring on this pain? I will attempt to see if this has been the case.

CMrJ profile image
CMrJ

Yeah, vitamin deficiency was one of my ideas as to why this happened, i am still suffering slight pain but ive worked on stretching quite a bit.. i think it may be a combination of a lack of stretching routine, vitamine deficiency and quite possibly dehydration since vyvanse seems to dehydrate you quite a bit coupled with the loss of apetite for food and drink.

All of that coupled with a latent tension due to the vyvanse itself i belive leads to a gradual stiffening of the muscles. I have since decreased my dosage but what works best is simply stretching, diet and maybe also taking a few vyvanse breaks every now and then, which is good for tolerance anyway :) I'll give the sodium tablets a go, together with multivitamin tabs and hopefully it will counteract the problems.

Dn2xs profile image
Dn2xs in reply to CMrJ

I too thought I had a vitamin/mineral deficiency. This was not the case, confirmed by many blood tests. I also thought I was dehydrated, I was not. Just felt like I had a dry mouth all of the time. Thirsty but not dehydrated. Non-exercise days I will drink about 2L liters of water, plus other liquids. The sodium phosphate tablets are expensive ($45 for a tube of 20). Not sure if they play a role in this, but it's really the only thing that showed up low on my blood test. I just came across this: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi....

CMrJ profile image
CMrJ

Weird, yeah, ive been stressing a lot lately and due to work and school, ive been on the same amount for maybe 9 months now (30 mg at about 7 am, followed by a refill of 20 mg at 11 am and a final 20 mg around 3 pm; i have quite the fast metabolism and a very sneer therapeutic effect range) and for the first time in a long while i got jaw tensions and today i can feel the stiffness in my shoulders, so i think vyvanse's effect on the body varies with a lot of other factors, its quite hard to pinpoint to - perhaps vitamin supplements specifically catered to replenishing the building blocks of neurotransmitters are a good idea, there are some marketed as hangover rejuvenation after mdma. Ive also heard bananas contain some of these nutrients for serotonin replenishment, but thats just hearsay.

I did read that report about the 12 year old before i posted my initial query and it was basically what got me scared and thinking in these tracks to begin with.

Worth mentioning is that i had corona and a newly mostly rehabed sciatica/slipped disk at the start of these issues, which also has an effect on the nerves.

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