Side effects vary significantly from person to person, but adderall and vyvanse are different drugs from ritalin, not simply long-lasting variants. The longer-lasting variants of ritalin are Concerta (brandname) or methylphenidate ER (extended release--generic): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerta#Extended-release
When I was first treated they started me on regular ritalin, and I didn't have any negative side effects, but it wasn't very helpful simply because it only lasted about two hours. Switching to Concerta worked much better for me because it lasts steadily throughout an entire day.
As far as the mechanism of action and side effects, I have the impression from talking with psychiatrists and my own reading that Adderall tends to be a bit stronger in effect than Ritalin. Ritalin is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which means that dopamine remains in the synaptic cleft and continues to stimulate dopamine receptors. On the other hand, Adderall (amphetamine) is both a reuptake inhibitor and a releasing agent for dopamine, so it stimulates the release of dopamine into the synaptic cleft and blocks the reuptake of dopamine, which causes dopamine to remain in the synaptic cleft for a longer period of time as with Ritalin. The wikipedia links on the mechanism of action for each drug are helpful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylphenidate#Pharmacodynami...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adderall#Mechanism_of_action
Some knowledge of how synapses work may also be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaptic_cleft#Structure
Basically, neurons secrete specific chemicals to transmit specific messages to other neurons, and other neurons have specific receptors that bind to those specific chemicals. Increasing the release of messaging chemicals like dopamine will increase the strength of the "message", and preventing the chemicals from being reabsorbed back into the neuron that originally sent the signal allows them to bind repeatedly to the receptors on the neuron that receives the message, which also effectively strengthens the message. Dopamine itself plays a number of roles in cognition, which makes me suspicious that ADHD medications that operate on dopamine release and reuptake are probably a little more of a "shotgun" approach to dealing with ADHD symptoms than would be ideal, but their effectiveness in dealing with the symptoms is very well established. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Attention_deficit_hyp...
This is a really simplistic way to describe the mechanisms, but the impression that I've had is that Adderall tends to be a stronger drug because it acts on more than one mechanism (both stimulating dopamine release and blocking its reuptake). For me the extended release methylphenidate has been extremely helpful, so I haven't been concerned about trying any other ADHD medications.
Disclaimers: YMMV, consult a psychiatrist for actual medical advice and explanations of the mechanisms of these medications, etc...
When I was first treated they started me on regular ritalin, and I didn't have any negative side effects, but it wasn't very helpful simply because it only lasted about two hours. Switching to Concerta worked much better for me because it lasts steadily throughout an entire day.
As far as the mechanism of action and side effects, I have the impression from talking with psychiatrists and my own reading that Adderall tends to be a bit stronger in effect than Ritalin. Ritalin is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which means that dopamine remains in the synaptic cleft and continues to stimulate dopamine receptors. On the other hand, Adderall (amphetamine) is both a reuptake inhibitor and a releasing agent for dopamine, so it stimulates the release of dopamine into the synaptic cleft and blocks the reuptake of dopamine, which causes dopamine to remain in the synaptic cleft for a longer period of time as with Ritalin. The wikipedia links on the mechanism of action for each drug are helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylphenidate#Pharmacodynami... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adderall#Mechanism_of_action
Some knowledge of how synapses work may also be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaptic_cleft#Structure Basically, neurons secrete specific chemicals to transmit specific messages to other neurons, and other neurons have specific receptors that bind to those specific chemicals. Increasing the release of messaging chemicals like dopamine will increase the strength of the "message", and preventing the chemicals from being reabsorbed back into the neuron that originally sent the signal allows them to bind repeatedly to the receptors on the neuron that receives the message, which also effectively strengthens the message. Dopamine itself plays a number of roles in cognition, which makes me suspicious that ADHD medications that operate on dopamine release and reuptake are probably a little more of a "shotgun" approach to dealing with ADHD symptoms than would be ideal, but their effectiveness in dealing with the symptoms is very well established. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Attention_deficit_hyp...
This is a really simplistic way to describe the mechanisms, but the impression that I've had is that Adderall tends to be a stronger drug because it acts on more than one mechanism (both stimulating dopamine release and blocking its reuptake). For me the extended release methylphenidate has been extremely helpful, so I haven't been concerned about trying any other ADHD medications.
Disclaimers: YMMV, consult a psychiatrist for actual medical advice and explanations of the mechanisms of these medications, etc...