What is the Reality of Qelbree or Viloxazine for ADHD?

Executive Summary

• ADHD diagnoses continue to rise.
• What tends to be undiscussed regarding the medical establishment of the implications of Qelbree or Viloxazine for ADHD.

Introduction

If you search for the term Qelbree or Viloxazine, in most cases, you will be taken by Google to some of the biggest medical information websites. The problem is that all of these websites have undisclosed financial conflicts with pharmaceuticals that make Qelbree or Viloxazine. Reading these websites will promote ADHD medication, and following their advice will, in many cases, result in being prescribed ADHD medication.

We have no financial conflicts or other connections to drug companies or medical establishments. We will use our independence to review some of the information from these websites.

About ADHD Medications

The medications available break into two basic classifications: stimulants, which are either amphetamines or similar drugs like methylphenidate or antidepressants.

ADHD Drug Category #1: Simulants

The problems come in when scientific claims are made about how many of these drugs work by pharmaceutical companies. Amphetamine and amphetamine-type drugs cause not only those with attention issues to concentrate more, but they will also cause any person to concentrate more and increase their motivation. Using the effect of these drugs, we would increase (in the short term at least) the performance of everyone by placing them on amphetamines.

However, amphetamines or similar types of drugs can be considered blunt instruments, which have short- and long-term side effects and never actually address the ADD but provide short-term concentration increases while the drug is taken.

ADHD Drug Category #2: Antidepressants

The second category of drugs uses various antidepressants.

Antidepressants were originally based on the low serotonin hypothesis but continue to be used years after this hypothesis has been disproven. The logic and evidence for using antidepressants to treat attention issues are weak. Still, antidepressants keep expanding their use, going as far as recently being submitted to treat covid. The usage of antidepressants for ADHD is explained in the following quotation from Additute Magazine. 

Non-stimulant ADHD medications are considered second-line or third-line treatments because the level of benefits and response rates are significantly lower. Meaning, stimulant medications are more effective at relieving symptoms for a larger percentage of people. Some non-stimulant ADHD medications, like blood pressure medications, work best when used in addition to stimulant medications.

In research literature, the benefits of antidepressants for ADHD are not clinically significant. Meaning, their efficacy is either unknown or the responses are so small that a patient may not notice a difference in symptoms.

Allow us to translate, as it seems difficult to say what is true if, like Additude Magazine, you are controlled by pharmaceutical interests — this means the antidepressants don’t work. In reality, it is worse than this. Normally through rigging the studies, drugs that don’t work can be made to look like they do. If antidepressants were not “clinically effective” against ADHD, this means that, most likely, the drugs worsened the condition.

A Major Motivation for Non Stimulant Treatment for ADHD

This is explained in the quotation from Healthline.

Stimulant medications, like Adderall and Ritalin, are the most widely accepted and tested treatments for ADHD in both children and adults. But stimulant medications have a high potential for misuse, especially in teens and adults.

This is explained as the major benefit to Qelbree or Viloxazine by The Herald Press.

Unlike nearly all other ADHD medicines, Qelbree is not a stimulant or a controlled substance, making it harder to abuse than older drugs. That’s been a problem with earlier ADHD treatments like Ritalin, nearly all of which contain the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate.

Experts say the drug may appeal to parents who don’t want to give their child stimulants.

It also could be an option for kids who have substance abuse problems, dislike the side effects of stimulants or need additional therapy, said Dr. David W. Goodman, director of Suburban Psychiatric Associates near Baltimore and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

However, the major problem with the non stimulant drugs for ADHD is the following.

The Poor Performance of Antidepressants for ADHD

There is a lot of money on the table if drug companies can get off-label prescriptions of ADHD, and the position of the drug companies is most likely that it is a waste to have a drug not be prescribed — even if there is no evidence it works for the item in question — which is what has occurred. Antidepressants never had to be approved by the FDA for this purpose, all that was necessary was for the drug companies to send enough pharma reps to enough doctor’s offices, and the prescription for antidepressants began to flow. As the pharma companies own the FDA through financial conflicts and direct funding, the FDA will never stop this practice. And this also means that Additude Magazine and all the other establishment media entities covering antidepressants will never tell their readers that the drugs simply don’t work.