!!Stimulants / Circulation / Positional Peripheral Cyanosis?

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Please read this and please reply if you know anything about it. Potentially dangerous condition and I need advice.


Google has failed me and I figured if there is a group of people anywhere on the web who can help me, this is the place to go.

Okay, so...

I started taking ADHD meds (first Vyvanse, then Adderall) about five weeks ago. Currently on 30mg Adderall times twice per day (morning, afternoon) totaling 60mg.

Things are good in terms of side effects for the most part. Some mild bruxism (jaw clenching) but I can control it. Doesn't hurt or anything.

I noticed a couple times that when I sit with my legs crossed under me ("Indian style"), the pinky toe on my right foot might turn blue. Strange, I thought, so I stopped sitting like that.

However, for the past three days, both of my feet (worst of it on my right pink toe) will turn bluish purple if I am sitting in my chair in any position after like two or three minutes. Not long at all. Seems worse when I'm sitting normally with both feet just on the ground, nothing fancy. It happens if I stand for a while, too, though it seems to take longer when I'm standing, I think. So I've been keeping my feet elevated on my desk intermittently this afternoon....

I spent about 11 hours yesterday researching this and found surprisingly little information. I don't even know what this would be officially called, so I've been thinking of it as "positional peripheral cyanosis/hypoxia, etc." or variations thereof.

Seriously, I'm having trouble finding much at all about feet turning blue/purple based on posture, though I have found some stuff about "dependent cyanosis" and in this context, it seems that "dependent" means sitting with your feet dangling or hanging, like off a bed. I don't know.

Capillary refill time in my feet seems abnormal, too (almost ten seconds at times).

I'm not in any kind of respiratory or cardiac discomfort. No other symptoms that I'm aware of. It doesn't hurt at all, even when my feet are blue.

So, anybody know what this is or whether it's dangerous or if it is due to the amphetamines?

Thanks! Please!

could be vasoconstriction preventing good blood flow to your feet? i think a lot of stimulants do this

i have no idea if it is dangerous or not but you should go to a doc really

I'd recommend you talk to the doctor you go to about that, hopefully you have one. But yeah 60 mg every day sounds like a lot, I had that much before once recreationally(not something I encourage people to do, but whatever.) and well I certainly enjoyed it but I cannot imagine 60mg per day for any length of time is healthy

Interesting it's worse when your feet are down-
I have systemic venous failure, and it's usually the case that one's limbs turn red or swollen if your venous pumps aren't working efficiently, due to gravity.
That means, I would think, that your problem is the opposite- it's getting oxygen-rich blood TO your feet that's the problem-
that it's dependent on position (I would assume your feet are normal-looking in the morning, or when you're stretched out?) is also probably a clue of some kind.

I agree with seeing a doctor. I have to wear compression stockings and cut out sodium, and I still am at risk for serious blood clots.
Your condition sounds different, as I said, but any circulation problems at all are to be taken very seriously.

Hey, thanks, everyone. For the replies. I thought I would get alerts if there were replies but I don't.

It's still happening but it seems better when I move around more. Even so, it seems to be caused by the medicine and not by lack of movement.

My shrink doesn't seem to give a crap even though he's the one prescribing the meds, so I'll check it out with primary care. Which sucks because I don't have insurance.

An interesting event: I decided to take a "break" from the medicine so I had 1/2 dose one day and then the next morning, I woke up by smashing my funny bone on an X-Box remote when I was startled by someone pressure-washing my apartment window (all in all, not the best the way to wake up). Now the interesting part:

Within seconds of waking up, I developed chest pain behind the sternum radiating to the chin. It was a very, very tight squeezing-type pain and after the initial pain wore off (maybe 15-20 minutes). And one odd factor is that it was worsened by increased venous return to the heart. So, if I sat down, pulsating chest pain. If I leaned back, pulsating chest pain. If I raised my arms, pulsating chest pain. If I "exerted" myself by walking more than about thirty steps, pulsating chest pain. If I performed the Valsalva maneuver (think depressurizing your ears by plugging your nose and "blowing" without letting any air out), the pain would decrease temporarily and then get worse about four seconds after I released. This all points to increased pain upon increased blood flow to the heart.

I went to the ER when it started and when a doc saw me (four-five hours after it started), the pain was mostly gone and all she could say was that it wasn't an emergency. No diagnosis. No cause. Just "I don't know but you don't seem to be dying."

It lasted for about four days, off and on. For a while, it was worse when I ate.

I've read that pericarditis matches many of my symptoms but I don't know.

So, yeah. Strange. I'm only 27 and I don't have a history of heart problems. At least not that I'm aware of.

I'm puzzled by why none of the medical practitioners I've seen have mentioned pericarditis, since it is really close to a match of my symptoms. That makes me think that there is a subtlety to the traditional presentation of the condition that isn't adequately communicated via sources like Wikipedia but are recognizable by a clinician.

Or it could be that they aren't familiar with the symptoms of pericarditis, which is a frightening prospect.

Ok, too much talky-talky. Bye.