Other than the reduced pill consumption there is zero difference between regular Adderall and Adderall XR. Taking a dose of regular Adderall then another dose about 3-4 hours later gives you the exact same effect and duration.


For adults, taking the 2nd dose may work fine. For children in school, however, this makes things too complicated. In my case, my DS is in high school, so having to send in meds so that the nurse can dispense them during the day, hoping that he actually remembers to show up to take them, and not worrying about the up-down-up effect that two doses would give vs. the more consistent results of the time-released version make this an unworkable solution for us.

So I would say that deciding on the time-released version or the double dose is very heavily dependent on who is actually taking these meds as the logistics of one over the other may end up being the deciding factor.