I'm not sure which category I should stick this in - here is appropriate (sudden drop off in medication efficacy post-concussion - concurrent with other prolonged symptoms), but perhaps someone in another topic may know something as it relates to mental illness, attention deficit, and medications.

anyhow.. I've been in treatment for the last 3 or 4 yrs under the care of a psychiatrist for what, to my understanding, is a disorder somewhere in the bipolar spectrum, alongside an anxiety and panic disorder, and very recently ADD.

I started Adderall about two months ago, with varying degrees of success at different doses and between the IR and the XR, etc, but I have never not felt SOMETHING.

I sustained a moderate concussion on May 1st (very ridiculous, careless move - wasn't watching where I was going, slammed my head into some 2x4s sticking out of the cab of a truck parked in front of my car), and as of that week - the Adderall just plain stopped working. At the time of the accident, I had been taking 1 30mg XR/day - sometimes with an IR booster 1 or 2x a day btw 7mg and 11.25mg. I had some shortly after it happened (I didn't immediately realize it was a concussion - I didn't think I hit my head hard enough - and it was a lazy Saturday, so I thought it might perk me up.... but no.... then the fatigue came, the dizziness, etc) and felt nothing, same in the following few days - it had no affect whatever. Even if the dose wasn't perfect for focusing (my psychiatrist and I were still working that out), it at the least perked me up a little... over that week, and the following week, I gradually upped my dose... I was soon up to 70+mg over the course of a day (12-14hrs, certainly not all at once) - more than double what I had been taking and little to no effect whatsoever. I can't concentrate. At all. Perhaps worse than before, but it's hard to say.

It's now the 20th of May. I have persistent headaches, moderate-severe light sensitivity... and some other miscellaneous things that are hard to pull apart from pre-existing conditions. Example: I started having severe panic attacks about a week later (and, similar - though perhaps not related - to the adderall experience, I had to take 2-3x more xanax than I ever have before - despite being off of it since 2008), I'm not sleeping, I can't concentrate to save my life! Situational factors obviously include pre-existing attention issues, same with anxiety and sleep issues... also, I'm in a high period of stress: my room mates were breaking up and I was panicking at the prospect of moving at the end of the month (not possible - luckily everything worked out), my partner and I breaking up, and end of semester exams next week (and I can't focus! I neeeeed to study :/).. oh, and a damn sore neck the nurse at school just gave me a muscle relaxer for.


I don't know what to do... I have a follow-up appt with my psychiatrist on the 26th (after starting the XR a week and a half prior to the concussion).

Any insights?



Oh, and this is my third. The first seven years ago, and the last one (I think - unconfirmed, as I wasn't seen at the ER till approximately 8hrs after the incident, and they completely ignored my complaints and the following hysteria as I was primarly there for a potentially-broken foot, but I'm pretty sure it was one) having occurred late last August - less than a year ago.
The first one was the worst of them (stage diver landed on my head - his spine and ribcage landing square on top of my head. brutal.), the second one was... well... crappy..., and this one didn't FEEL bad, but (not surprisingly) has resulted in the worst (it was immediately followed by 48hrs of dimished cognition and a weird agraphia thing that had me totally freaked out - it went away) and longest lasting symptoms. I didn't have any lasting symptoms after the others, even the first really bad one in which I blacked out for a second - except for a lot of neck strain.