dexedrine for depression

I'm worried about my sister.  She is 49 years old.  She's been taking 120 mg. a day of concerta for depression for several years as well as lithium and other drugs.  She was also given Ultram, but is no longer taking it. She looks terrible, has been losing weight and is being hospitalized (psychiatric hospital) at ever more frequent intervals.  According to a consult she obtained last summer, she has also sustained cognitive damage from ect. Her (social worker) therapist and the (psychologist) consultant both suggested she obtain an opinion from another psychiatrist and my other sister offered to pay for one.  My sister refused. I'm afraid she's addicted to the amphetamines and might die.  What can I do ?

Her husband is seeing the same psychiatrist.  He is 55 years old and has a bad heart (he's on disability for heart disease). He used to be an alcholic.  He has been given dexedrine for depression for the last several years. Last week he wrecked his car and was arrested for breaking into a house.  He believes his own house is imploding.
He, also, is being hospitalized at ever more frequent intervals by his psychiatrist. I'm afraid his bad heart will kill him.  What can I do ?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

There is not too much you can do except get good care for both of them. Another psychiatric opinion and medication management for your sister is definetly called for...some of the medications she is taking counter-act the other.  I would seriously question taking Dexidrene for depresssion these days..there are so many other drugs that are better and more effective.

[ADHD Twinz]

Hello ....me and my twins sister are 17 yrs old. (Both girls) In high school right now.. Grade 12. We're into the sports, singing, making movies... anything physically active ..working out and exercise.. We were both diagnosed with ADHD at the age 12.  Our mom always knew something was different with us ever since we were just lil toddlers runnin around the house.  We feel very ...what's the word.... alone? ...we feel like outcasts around our friends.. we dont even know if they would be considered our friends.. I mean, aren't friends suppose to be there for you whenever you feel down? or talk to you and help solve problems and stuff.  We haven't experienced that before. I don't know if it's because we're too afraid to call our friend for help, knowing that they wouldnt care anyway, or just cause we're a waste of their time.  Anyway, we've been on the Dexedrine for 2 years now.. and we're both really depressed now. The side effects of this medication never seemed so bad until you've been using it continuously for awhile.  You tend to get used to it too. It's not the best feeling..  Sometimes you just dont know what to expect with the side effects of this pill. One day we'll take the pill, we'll feel totally drowsy, and dead... have no feelings whatsoever... it's like we're ghosts... not happy not sad.... right in the middle - no feeling! ...we call that one the "Dead Mode" ...then there's a day we'll take the pill ..and we'll feel really great.. very happy, and have lots of energy, and talk like a motor... still wanting to do work in school and stuff.. just talk a lot.. we call this one the "annoying mode" (cause all the talking, it's nuts) ...then there's another mode ..totally depressing, just wanna get outta this world.. and we feel like we're invisable.. noone cares about us... very sad ... this pill is very tipsy.. we just dont' know what to expect out of it.. it's kinda scary... but we know if we dont take the pill, that things will go down. We think we can't live with or without the pill.  If dont take the pill.. we are off the wall hyper.. and we get into a lot of trouble, we NEVER work in school.. all we wanna do is skip all our classes.. and we say things without thinking, and that's trouble right there.  We might hurt people without really knowing, and it's sad cause we really dont mean to.  When we do take the pill... we feel really depressed and sick and drowsy but at least we dont hurt anyone while we're on it.  We'd rather be depressed on the pill not hurting anyone, then without the pill feeling good but hurting people without knowing. So, we're kinda gettin used to feelin depressed and livin withit.  We've lost our socialness.. and a lotta our friends keep askin "what happened to the crazy fun twins we remember." That's what gets us sad... cause back in the day, we'd be the fun and crazy twins but.. troubled twins too... so either way, somebody's goin to get hurt. I just wanna finish my school year off with good marks, and so far it's not the best, we're behind in all our classes.. the only classes we're good in are Gym and Art. We just get worked up when it comes to reading a book or ...researching stuff for a project.. we think to much about it.. and then we dont know where to start, so we get lost in our heads.. it's really hard, and we want help really bad.  We just wanna be normal like everyone else. We look at everyone else, and say ...wow it must be really easy to be them... not havin to work twice as hard just to finish and complete assignments.. and not havin to procrastinate all the time (that's all we are .."last minute"!" ..like tonight, i need to get this project done before tomorrow morning. It;s due tomorrow, and the teacher gave it to us a month ago, but ofcourse ...i have to just wait until the last day to begin.. and i HATE living this way. I want to be organized, responsible and on time.. but in the end everything me and my twin sis do is "MESSED UP, LATE or INCOMPLETE..."  Please.. if anyone has any comments or any thing that can help.. we'd love to hear from ya. We've been tryin to get a hold of other teens with the same problems as us.. we just wanna talk to people we can relate to! you can email us at ***@**** ..we'd like to talk to anyone..
thanks a lot ...see ya! ...wilson twinz