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Comment by joecool1029 | Hacker News Reader

Phenylephrine does have one use that the author missed: It's used in ophthalmology to dilate the pupils before eye exams.

On the topic of other use case medications, I used to take Sudafed (the real pseudoephedrine kind) during allergy season for a few weeks each year and noticed my productivity skyrocketed during that time, when I normally had issues context switching. Eventually I narrowed it down to taking Sudafed and saw this post: https://accidentalscientist.com/2005/08/the-sudafed-test-for...

This lead to an ADHD diagnosis and proper meds and my life and work productivity improved pretty dramatically.

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I ran into the opposite situation a few weeks ago. I was wondering why my allergies were so much worse on the weekends, and eventually narrowed it down to me only taking my ADHD meds on weekdays.

Bit disappointing that everyone starts commenting about amphetamines on a post about Sudafed working the same way as Strattera, which isn't a stimulant.

Though him telling people Strattera has no side effects hopefully didn't surprise anyone when they went on it, it feels (literally) like being kicked in the stomach and can make you quite nauseous.

I didn't like the safety profile on Strattera nor the inability to take it 'as needed'. Rare, but there were reports of liver injuries on it. My doctor seemed to be unimpressed in it when I asked about options on and said in her experience amphetamines almost always had the best efficacy in adult ADHD patients.

It works well for me. Just Vyvanse wasn't 24/7 (unless you enjoy never sleeping) and the comedown is really bad for me. I did have to suggest it myself because my doctor preferred guanfacine for a secondary medicine, but it has a lot of side effects itself - and whenever anyone else asked my medicines they thought I said "guaifenesin".

The safety profile of amphetamines are not anywhere near as good as Strattera, so if that's why you are avoiding it, you should reconsider. Vyvanse can cause heart issues, liver issues, and kidney issues (and rarely lung issues). If amphetamines didn't have serious side effects, we'd let everyone use them :)

I took amphetamines for 10 years, and Strattera for 15 years. Straterra was much more consistent in efficacy, and it never stopped working for me - almost all amphetamines stopped working after a few years, and i would have to change them.

>Sudafed working the same way as Strattera

Well I have (currently) unmedicated ADHD and pseudoephedrine never did a thing for me besides clear my sinuses, so it's good to know beforehand that trying Strattera will be useless. My problem must be more dopamine and less so norepinepherine.

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