My psychiatrist has prescribed Aderrall for adult ADHD. I m 65 and had a spell of major depression which I ve been using Venlafaxine (generic for Effexor) at 112 mg per day and anxiety for which I ve been prescribed up to 2 mg per day of Lorazepam (four 0.5 mg tablets. After many months I came out of depression and anxiety about a month ago. I ve tapered the addictive Lorazepam down to zero or 1 tablet per day and have felt some withdrawal effects (nervousness.) I was tested for ADHD and was found to have it, but also found to be in major depression and to have high levels of anxiety, which have overlapping effects on attention and productivity. The psychologist doing the test neglected to venture an opinion as to the degree to which my symptoms (continuous distracting thought train) were attributable to ADHD or I am very reluctant to jump into another addictive drug. Also, the side effects of Aderall are essentially the symptoms I ve been treated for, resulting from depression and anxiety--the foremost of which has been insomnia, but also weight loss (I lost 20 pounds and recently gained it all back) and nevousness. (I haven t had any stomach disorders and have had constipation from Lorazepam rather than diarrehea.) So I would be in the position of taking an amphetaimine in the morning and perhaps retriggering nervousness and anxiety as well, then having to take an addictive benzodiazapine (Lorazepam) in order to cope with the self-induced hyperactive activity. I ve read online that the supposed Paradoxical effect of drugs for ADHD (that they calm the person down rather than acting as a stimuilant) has been shown to be a myth, even though the drugs do help with attention and focus. This is deeply confusing. My question is with respect to the listed side effects: loss of appetite, weight loss, dry mouth, stomach upset, nausea/vomiting, dizziness, headache, diarrhea, fever, nervousness, trouble sleeping. Drug labling and web sites never give you the percentage of those tested having these side effects, so you never have any idea of the relative risk. Physicians have told me these listings are relatively meaningless since to cover their butts pharmaceutical companies will list any side effect reported in studies no matter how small. Do you have access to reported percentage of study population data for each of the identified side effects? My psychiatrist is minimalist in providing meaningful answers to the questions that I have about the risk side of this drug. Also, I ve recently read a book that suggests that such medications are carcinogenic and otherwise harmful, and that medicating for the ADHD condition is essentially a misdiagnosis at least in some cases ( The Edison Gene , by Thom Hartmann, who runs an education program for ADHD kids and has written 3-4 books on the subject.