List of ADHD Medications: Stimulants and Non-Stimulants

When you search for ADHD medication, you get a wall of brand names. Adderall, Vyvanse, Concerta, Focalin, Strattera, Qelbree, Intuniv. It looks like dozens of different drugs. It is not.

Most of that list comes down to a handful of active ingredients sold in different forms: a tablet, a capsule, a liquid, a chewable, a patch. Once you see the families, the list gets much shorter and much easier to read.

A note on where this comes from. I live in Turkey, and most of the products below are not sold here. So this is a research-based guide, built from the FDA prescribing information on DailyMed and a few large studies, not from personal experience with each drug. I checked every label listed here on October 23, 2026.

There are no doses in this article. Which medication fits you, and at what dose, is a decision for you and your prescriber.

The three families at a glance

ADHD medications in the US fall into three groups:

• The methylphenidate family. Stimulants built on methylphenidate or its close relative dexmethylphenidate. Ritalin, Concerta and Focalin live here.
• The amphetamine family. Stimulants built on amphetamine, dextroamphetamine or lisdexamfetamine. Adderall, Vyvanse and Dexedrine live here.
• The non-stimulants. Medications that work through other pathways and are not controlled substances. Strattera, Qelbree, Intuniv and extended-release clonidine live here.

Every stimulant on this list carries the label "CII" on DailyMed, which means it is a Schedule II controlled substance. That affects how prescriptions are written and refilled. The non-stimulant labels state plainly that they are not controlled.

The full list in one table

This table covers the products with current FDA prescribing information on DailyMed as of October 23, 2026. Ages come from each label; where a label gives no age in its indication, I note what it was studied in.

Family	Active ingredient	US brand names	Forms	Label ages
Methylphenidate	methylphenidate	Ritalin, Methylin	tablet, oral solution	Ritalin: 6 and older, adults
Methylphenidate	methylphenidate (extended release)	Concerta, Ritalin LA, Metadate CD, Relexxii, Jornay PM, Quillivant XR, QuilliChew ER, Cotempla XR-ODT	tablet, capsule, liquid, chewable, dissolving tablet	Concerta: 6 to 65; Jornay PM: 6 and older
Methylphenidate	methylphenidate patch	Daytrana	skin patch	6 to 17
Methylphenidate	dexmethylphenidate	Focalin, Focalin XR	tablet, capsule	Focalin XR: children 6 and older, adults
Methylphenidate	serdexmethylphenidate and dexmethylphenidate	Azstarys	capsule	6 and older
Amphetamine	mixed amphetamine salts	Adderall, Adderall XR, Mydayis	tablet, capsule	Adderall XR: 6 and older, adults; Mydayis: 13 and older
Amphetamine	amphetamine	Evekeo, Adzenys XR-ODT, Dyanavel XR	tablet, dissolving tablet, liquid	Adzenys, Dyanavel: 6 and older
Amphetamine	dextroamphetamine	Zenzedi, ProCentra, Dexedrine Spansule, Xelstrym	tablet, liquid, capsule, patch	Xelstrym: 6 and older, adults
Amphetamine	lisdexamfetamine	Vyvanse	capsule, chewable	6 and older, adults
Non-stimulant	atomoxetine	Strattera	capsule	6 and older, adults
Non-stimulant	viloxazine	Qelbree	capsule	6 and older, adults
Non-stimulant	guanfacine (extended release)	Intuniv	tablet	studied in ages 6 to 17
Non-stimulant	clonidine (extended release)	generic tablets, Onyda XR	tablet, liquid	Onyda XR: 6 and older

Most of the older ingredients also come as generics: methylphenidate, dexmethylphenidate, mixed amphetamine salts, lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine, guanfacine ER and clonidine ER all have many generic labels on DailyMed. Qelbree and Azstarys appeared there only under their brand names when I checked.

The methylphenidate family

Methylphenidate is the family I have written about most on this site, because it is sold where I live. I wrote a longer explainer on how methylphenidate works. The short version: it increases the availability of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, the two chemical messengers most tied to attention and motivation.

What separates the brands is mostly delivery. Ritalin is immediate release. Concerta uses an osmotic pump that releases the drug slowly through the day; I explained that system in what Concerta is and how OROS works. Jornay PM is designed to be taken in the evening so that the effect is already present in the morning. Daytrana delivers methylphenidate through the skin.

Methylphenidate is a mix of two mirror-image forms of the same molecule. Dexmethylphenidate (Focalin) is the form that does most of the work, which the Azstarys label calls the more pharmacologically active one. Azstarys combines dexmethylphenidate with serdexmethylphenidate, which its label describes as a prodrug: an inactive form the body converts into the active drug.

The amphetamine family

Amphetamine products work on the same two messengers, dopamine and norepinephrine, through a somewhat different mechanism. Adderall is the most famous name, and it is a mix of four amphetamine salts. I cover it in detail in what Adderall is.

Vyvanse is lisdexamfetamine. Its FDA label calls it a prodrug of amphetamine, so the capsule does nothing until the body converts it. Vyvanse is also approved for moderate to severe binge eating disorder in adults. How the two compare is in Vyvanse vs Adderall.

The rest of the family covers different needs. Mydayis is a longer-lasting mixed salts capsule approved for ages 13 and older. Dyanavel XR is a liquid and a tablet. Adzenys XR-ODT dissolves in the mouth. Xelstrym is a dextroamphetamine patch. Evekeo and Zenzedi are older tablets whose labels use older wording; the Zenzedi label lists ages 3 to 16 for the ADHD indication.

The non-stimulants

Non-stimulants are not one class. They are two quite different groups.

Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. Atomoxetine (Strattera) and viloxazine (Qelbree) both work mainly on norepinephrine. Both are approved for children 6 and older and for adults. Both carry a boxed warning about suicidal thoughts and behaviors, which is why closer monitoring is part of starting them. The Strattera label adds that in an abuse-potential study it was not associated with stimulant or euphoric effects.

Alpha-2 agonists. Extended-release guanfacine (Intuniv) and extended-release clonidine act on a different receptor system. Their labels approve them on their own or added to a stimulant. Their approvals rest on studies in children and teens, not adults.

Non-stimulants usually take longer to show their full effect than stimulants do. I go deeper in non-stimulant ADHD medications.

Stimulants vs non-stimulants: the real differences

	Stimulants	Non-stimulants
Families	methylphenidate, amphetamine	atomoxetine, viloxazine, guanfacine ER, clonidine ER
Controlled substance	Schedule II	not controlled
How fast it works	effect usually felt on the day of a dose	full effect often takes weeks
Boxed warning	abuse, misuse and addiction	suicidal thoughts (atomoxetine, viloxazine)
Shortage status (October 23, 2026)	three products listed as current shortages	none listed as a current shortage

On effectiveness, the largest comparison I know of is a 2018 network meta-analysis in The Lancet Psychiatry. It pooled 133 double-blind trials in children, teens and adults. In clinician ratings for children and teens, every drug studied beat placebo, and the effect sizes for amphetamines and methylphenidate were larger than the one for atomoxetine. Weighing both effectiveness and tolerability, the authors supported methylphenidate in children and teens and amphetamines in adults as preferred first choices for short-term treatment (Cortese et al., 2018).

That is a population-level finding. It does not tell you which medication will suit your body. Some people do better on a non-stimulant, some cannot tolerate one stimulant family but do well on the other, and some need a combination. A first try that goes badly is common and does not mean medication cannot work for you.

Children vs adults

For children, the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline is the main US reference. For children from age 6 to their 12th birthday it recommends FDA-approved medication together with parent training in behavior management and/or classroom behavioral support, and it notes that the evidence is strongest for stimulants, followed by atomoxetine, extended-release guanfacine and extended-release clonidine (Wolraich et al., 2019).

For adults, the list is shorter. Not every product is approved past age 17. Daytrana stops at 17, and Concerta's label covers ages 6 to 65. Among non-stimulants, only Strattera and Qelbree are approved for adults. A prescriber can still use a medication off-label, but that is a conversation to have openly with them.

The safety warnings every stimulant shares

In May 2023, the FDA required updated boxed warnings across the whole class of prescription stimulants, so that every label describes the risks of misuse, abuse, addiction and overdose the same way. The agency's review found that most people who use these drugs nonmedically get them from friends or family, an estimated 56 to 80 percent.

The practical side of that warning is simple: take the medication as prescribed, never share it, store it where visitors cannot reach it, and dispose of leftovers properly. If you are worried about addiction risk with legitimate treatment, I looked at the research in is ADHD medication addictive.

Common side effects across stimulants include reduced appetite, trouble sleeping and a faster heart rate. I keep a fuller overview in ADHD medication side effects.

Shortages: what the list looks like today

This part changes fast, so here is the date. On October 23, 2026, the FDA Drug Shortages database still listed three ADHD stimulants as current shortages:

• immediate-release mixed amphetamine salts (the Adderall tablet and its generics), first posted in October 2022
• extended-release methylphenidate tablets (Concerta, Relexxii and generics), first posted in July 2023
• lisdexamfetamine capsules and chewables (Vyvanse and generics), first posted in July 2023

Availability varied by manufacturer and strength. Some were listed as available, some as limited, some as unavailable. I follow this in more detail in the Adderall shortage. None of the non-stimulants were listed as a current shortage when I checked.

How to use this list

A list like this is useful for one thing: walking into an appointment knowing the landscape. It helps you ask better questions.

• Is this a methylphenidate or an amphetamine product?
• Is it immediate release or extended release?
• Is there a generic version, and does my plan cover it?
• If I have trouble swallowing pills, is there a liquid, chewable or patch?
• If a stimulant is not right for me, which non-stimulant would you consider and why?

What the list cannot do is choose for you. Your heart health, other medications, sleep, appetite, history with substances and daily schedule all matter, and only a prescriber who knows those details can weigh them.