Concerta dosage | ADHD Information

My son is 11 years old and approximately 70 pounds. He's starting on 18 mg Concerta. Are there kids out there my son's age/weight who have done well on that dose?

Nekochan,

I have a son who will be 10 years old in a couple of months.  He is about 68 pounds and has been taking 18 mg Concerta since October 2005.  My son has done wonderful on this dose of Concerta.  He has not suffered any side affects since being on the meds, and his improvement in school has ben remarkable.  It would seem that my son is one of the lucky ones, in that the first med we tried had such great results.  Good Luck      

My son is 9 yrs old, 76 lbs, and the 18mg didn't do anything for him at all. 27 didn't help much either, but 36mg was to high, so we had to move onto another med.

I think that is the lowest dose of Concerta (although I could be wrong). Everyone reacts differently though. You just have to try it out and see :).

If it makes you feel any better, although I haven't tried focalin, I have tried Adderall and I personally couldn't handle it. I have co-morbid anxiety and the Adderall sent me into an all day panic attack. Which isn't to say that this will happen to everyone, because that's certainly not the case, but just goes to show how each medication can be completely different for each person. I'm doing very well on Concerta, no side effects at all.

Good luck, I hope he does well.

Yea, we had a very tough time with Focalin and Adderall, so at this point I'm pretty nervous. Thanks

Thanks so much. So far, it seems to be pretty good.  A little stomach upset, but that could be because of the lack of sleep (he was up until 1:30 in the morning). However, he has had sleeping problems since he was newborn, so it's hard to tell how much is due to the Concerta. I'm giving him benadryl tonight to help him sleep.

 

 

My daughter just started Concerta this week so I have been educating myself as best as posible.

The dosing instructions for Concerta are to start at 18mg and increase weekly according to side effects and benefit, but not to exceed the maximum dose of 2mg/kg of body weight. For a 70 lb person that would mean not to exceed 63mg per day (70lb/2.2=31.8kg; 31.8kgx2mg/kg=63mg max dose). http://www.concerta.net/html/concerta/hcp/dosing.jsp?

Studies done on Concerta showed that most treated children did best at 36mg/day:

Swanson J, Greenhill L, Pelham W, et al. Initiating Concerta™ (OROS® methylphenidate HCl) qd in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. J Clin Res. 2000;3:59-76."55% of patients were successfully titrated to a dose of 36 mg qd; 26% were titrated to a final dose of 54 mg qd; and 19% were well maintained on 18 mg qd"

fyi (keeping in mind the difference between statistical expectaion and the realities of individuals)

vickie

vickie38875.5882523148

Concerta kept my son up too, although it doesn't me. Of course I stay up late anyway. Does the Benedryl help? It can actually rev. up some people as strange as that seems. Have you ever thought about Melatonin? It helps some people a great deal and might be better then Benedryl, you could ask his doctor anyway.

I'm glad things are going well. Have him eat, or drink milk when taking his pill, it will help with his tummy. That should go away in a few weeks.

 hello all

curious as my son started conserta today  he is 45 pounds and she started him on 18 mg. When did any of you notice a difference in your child on this how soon?

i heard for the sleepless-ness to use melotonin its natural and works quite well

and what was it that you notice as far as change goes? thanks

My son started at 49 pounds, and is now at about 45 pounds. He started on different adderalls for 2 weeks. This is his second week on concerta 18mg, and he is doing awesome! His appetite is not there at all, but I started him on pediasure with his nightly snack, and I think it might be helping. His stomach aches have almost gone away also. The sleepless nights have almost gone away as well. He is much better this second week. The first night, ne never went to sleep, he was up the entire night. Now, he is about a half hour later than his usual bedtime.

As for the changes. He can actually focus at school. He is in first grade, and his teacher told me he sat and wrote a story for 25 minutes, and she said it was so neat. She was shocked, we haven't told her he is meds yet. Even his karate sensei, kept him after class the other night, just to tell him what a great job he did. His exact words to me and him was "What are you doing to him? He was on fire tonight, Excellent!" Good luck!

My 10yo daughter is 55lbs and started 18mg a week ago. No side effects. I have not seen a change at home, but there has been no homework (school is winding down) and she has a substitute teacher. Without feedback, we are not changing her meds.

vickie

My daughters 10, 80 lbs, ADHD and has been on 18mg of Concerta for a year, it's working very well.  I'm very happy that the lowest dose does the trick.  she did have stomach aches and loss of appetite for about 2 weeks, but then that went away and she's had no side effects since.  Good LuckMy son is 7 and 48 pounds. and we started concerta 18 mg 4 days ago. My doc said 18mg is the lowest dose available. He is doing really well on this one so far, I hope it keeps up.  We tried adderall xr 5 mg, adderall xr 10 mg and regular adderall 5mg twice a day. They were awful! He cried almost nonstop, and he was miserable. So far this one is working. I hope you have good results, good luck!