The FDA has approved a new ADHD medication, Vyvanse for the treatment of ADHD. Those who follow ADHD news already know about this — it’s been in the news for a couple of days.
The interesting part of this particular medication approval is this: There are no new ingredients in the medication — it’s dextroamphetamine. However, it is packaged in such a way that abusing it becomes much more difficult. Dr. Sogn explains why in his post today:
The route of administration of a stimulant has a strong affect on abuse potential. Drugs that are rapidly absorbed and achieve higher blood levels can produce a euphoric effect. This effect is easier to obtain by crushing short acting tablets and snorting or injecting them. Longer acting tablets and capsules are not easily put into a form that can be snorted or injected, and thus have a less abuse potential.
Vyvanse is d-amphetamine (dextroamphetamine) that is linked or bound to a naturally occurring amino acid, l-lysine. This compound is inactive (is inert) until this bond is broken by enzymes (metabolized) in the GI tract (stomach and intestine), releasing the active drug, d-amphetamine. Read More…
To me, this is a significant breakthrough to the objection over the possibility of addiction and abuse of ADHD medications.
In other news, Dr. Doyle reports that researchers have developed a new test for ADHD: the MMAT/ADHD System.
It is a fifteen-minute,non-invasive, office-based test. What it measures is someone’s ability to pay attention to pay attention to visual stimuli while limiting their hyperactivity and controlling their impulsivity.
The stimuli patients watch are symmetric geometric shapes which change position randomly on a computer screen. Patients are told to focus on eight-pointed stars which pop up on the screen, while ignoring five-pointed stars which also appear. The test tracks the patient’s responses to those shifts. In effect, the test sees how someone does when faced with a consistent, monotonous but demanding task. It has been approved by the FDA for testing individuals.
This is an interesting test. I’d be curious to see how I did on it and it would be even more interesting to be tested with and without medication to see if there was a substantial difference in my response. Evidently the studies have been promising enough for it to be approved by the FDA. I wasn’t really aware that the FDA approved cognitive diagnostic tests.
So far, it seems that this test is used for children. I’d like to see some study results in adults. I suspect the results would differ somewhat, but not markedly.
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