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Originally Posted by mxim are you saying a longer acting stimulant would protect me from potential adrenal fatigue ? is it only seen with short acting drugs like ritalin? can using these drugs cause PERMANANT damade to the adrenal glands? |
Would you please point to the post where you came to your conclusion? Thanks.
All stimulants (both short and long-acting) demand more output from the adrenal glands. One metaphoric way of looking at this issue is that the adrenal glands are like the engine of a car. Using a stimulant is like pressing the accelerator pedal of the car.
All stimulants can eventually wear down the adrenal glands causing adrenal fatigue. Longer-acting stimulants can also cause adrenal fatigue. However, because the peak blood levels are lower, there is a lower risk of doing so. However the higher dose dose, the higher the risk of adrenal fatigue.
I do not know if they can cause permanent damage to the adrenal glands. I have yet to see a case of that in my more than 15 years of practice.
Total failure of the adrenal glands - an Addison's Disease crisis - quickly causes death (in about a day) since cortisol is absolutely necessary for life.
I haven't seen cases of Addison's disease (severe adrenal insufficiency) in patients treated appropriately with stimulants.