concerta | ADHD Information

Has anyone heard of these tablets concerta?MY 13yr old son has just been put on these yesterday i have searched the web and have read they are for treating adhd but my sons specalist whome he has been seeing for a year now says he will not say my son has adhd but behavior problems also problems with violence and staying focuced on task and that these pills will help him,im thinking of changing his specalist,he also says if the 18mg dose do not improve his behaviour in 6wks to ring him and he will up the doseage.I know my son has adhd and think this gp is a plank and has no idea what hes doing.i feel like no one is listening to me or understands what im going through.i wont to beable to give uo work to give my son the attention he needs and cannot afford to do this at the moment,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sorry for going on and on but feel better now had a winge

sandra100838988.1402546296

My son has been on concerta for 3 years - it has saved his life. My son is 9, weighs approx. 90 lbs, and is on 72mgs. I am very pleased with how successful my son has become since finding the right med, and right dosage for him. We see a special doctor for his medicine, a psychopharmacologist, who writes his prescriptions. It took us over 1 year to level off on the right dosage after finding concerta was the right med. for my son.

I am very happy with it. My son plays football, basketball, baseball, does well academically. Only difficult area is the social end, he has been labeled and lives in a small, gossipy town. He also has trouble, I think, with social cues,which is common with adhd'ers.

It may not be the right med for your son, but keep trying others till you find it - there is one out there. Plus, you also need to be patient with finding the right dosage.

Regards,

Beth

My daughter has recently started concerta and we like what we have seen so far. She is on 27mg and we may go to 36mg but we need to watch the weight issues as she is only 58lbs at 10 years old. We are still optimizing the dose. My daughter is not hyper in school and we cannot gauge the response on this. For more info try:

http://www.concerta.net/html/concerta/hcp/index.jsp?

It has the mode of action, delivery, prescribing information, etc. Also, 18mg is a low dose so do not be disappointed if you have to go up. The studies that the manufacture has done on kids was with 18-54mg and adolescents up to 72mg. Some people metabolize the med quickly and need more. Everyone is different. That is why more studies are being done and on adults too.

I agree with you, you need a doctor to give you some straight answers. Concerta 18 mg is the lowest dose. My dd started at 18 and titrated up to 36 mg at age 7, but we had to discontinue as it wasn't the right med for her. You probably won't notice much difference in his behavior at that dosage. And to me, 6 weeks is too long to wait. I'd say after 1 week you should call the doctor and give him an update. That's what my dr wanted us to do. Go to the Concerta web site and read up on it. Lots of people have very good luck with it. HTHWe started Concerta a couple weeks ago. My son is 6. We've tried other
medications, and so far this one is working great.

You've got to get some clear answers from the doctor so you know what
you're dealing with. That's gotta be so confusing for you!

For us, the Concerta is helping with some of the behavioral stuff. He doesn't
get as angry or frustrated as quickly as he used too. He listens better when
we are asking him to do something or not do something. It's just been great
so far. ps i think this is a great site im from uk and notice this is mainly usa am i ok to keep using it or should i find one thats uk based, i feel not only do i have to talk about whats happening with specalist or gps but i can come in and have a good old winge about corrys dailey behavouir and about how streesed angry and upset i am i hope its stilll ok to use it let me know as do not want to waste a space that someone else could use

sandra100838988.4781365741 thanks for your input it has helped im just cofused as what to do next,i know he has adhd he is the youngest of 5 chidren the eldest being 23yrs old so i know what he should be doing at his age,his specalist wanted to put me on a program of how to deal with teenagers but having children 23/21/18/16 seems pointless to me i know how to deal with teenagers got the badge tshirt the lot.I just wish they would diagnose him as i can claim alsorts of benifits for him which would enable me to give up work and be his full time carer i have appointment with gp tomorrow so will ask for different specalist to look into his condition,i just want a straight answer as am fed up going round the gardens

sandra100838988.4749074074

Hi and welcome!

My son has been on Concerta for quite awhile. He is 13 also. We've tried many, many meds and keep coming back to Concerta.

I just want to point out that all kids are different as to what doseage works for them. When my son hit puberty.... that combined with his very high metabolic rate, requred us to titrate his dose up a lot. My son is one of those rare kids who requires high doses....we are doing great at 162 mg.

Luckily, most kids don't fall into that subset of kids who require high doses, but if your son doesn't seem to respond the lower doses, or he seems to bounce from one med to another with no success, that may be a red flag that he is being undermedicated.

Okiemom

ok,i also am from the uk,scotland.

you need to see a child psychologist,not a gp.ask to be referred.don't hold your breath for the disability allowance(if it is what you are thinking about)it is very hard to get and some people with autistic children ,down syndroms don't get it.you have to prove that he needs help 24/7,and they mean 24/7.you need reprts from gp,health visitor,paedatrician,child psychologist,educational psychologist and school.him being adhd and taking meds won't do it.the good news is that HE DOES NOT NEED TO BE DIAGNOSED OFFICIALLY to get it.they are not looking at the diagnosis,just the fact that he needs supervision 24/7.

i am taking concerta, and it works well for me but make sure he has only ADHD

djmom,the uk does not reject the ADHD diagnosis for children ,i had no problem with my son being diagnosed or getting help.what i would say is that adult ADD/ADHD is alien to them,i have been diagnosed but even my chemist did not know adult could have add/adhd?????????WHAT DO THEY THINK HAPPEN TO KIDS WITH ADD/ADHD WHEN THEY GROW UP.I am new here too, I logged on to try to get a handle on recent issues with our almost 9 adhd son. I just have 2 quick points, our son has been on concerta for a few years as already mentioned it was a miracle drug for us. At the start of school we started seeing some old behaviors and I went to the Dr who upped the dosage we tried a small increase for about a week then went up one more dose this week he went from throwing chairs and hiding under desks (last week) to a note from the teacher today that he was rewarded for bieng good! We tried adderal in the past and it did not work for him made him nuts! and I have known people who said the oppisite that it worked and concerta did not. The other point I was going to make is I just read yesterday that the UK totally rejects the adhd diagnosis and very few children are treated for it so you are ahead of the game a bit if you are bieng prescribed concerta but the 6 week thing is nuts and that is a very small dose our Dr changed the dose from 36 mg to 45mg we waited about a week and went to 54mg and I knew in 2 days it was working it is true they try to keep the dose as low as possible which I appriciate but I would be all over your Dr in a week at the most it works very fast at least that has been the case with us.

hi ya my 9 year old son has been on concerta for 4 years and there is still no change in him he is on 36mlg we dont know what to do with him for the best

donna

Talk with his doctor. Maybe the dose isn't high enough. OUr doc said that when the dose is high enough you can tell by the change. The doses useful in most kids (6-12 yo) in the concerta clinical trials was 36-54mg and 54-72 for adolescents. 18mg helped about 20% of the kids. Everyone is different and statistics do not tell you how your child will do, but can help you know if your child is at a typical dose or needs something different. One study on ADHD meds showed that under medication, especially by pediatricians is a significant issue. If I were not seeing any improvement, I would insist on a higher dose (if no side effects are happening) or a different med. I would not stay on an ineffective med/dose this long. My 2 cents.vickie38994.5515046296on 54mg my 9yr. old son was feeling horrible, saying how wierd he feels, holding his head complaining he cant take this feeling- psyc. said it was too high, put him on 36 which took his appetite away completely and really didn't help with his adhd. his side effects were too many and he hated the way he felt ... we are now on 30mg of metadate cd- no side effects, social interaction much better--homework is quite inconsistent, some days no problem other days it takes alot for him to do it--- i'll take that over those horrible concerta side effects!!!!!

Hi my son has been on concerta for almost four years, nothing else worked for him i have tried all kinds of medicine. If it wasn't for concerta he wouldn't be doing so well. In April his psychopharmacoligist spelt wrong, said he had a double dose of adhd, and he was put on 90 mg, i thought this was high but the Dr. said he could put it higher if he wanted to. my son will be 13, in Jan. he weighs 72 lbs, but man the Jr. high so far for him what a difference, he studies now, the teachers say he's so focused, it's been a great ride. He also plays soccer, football, and is in a bowling league, and does great at these. I would look into if the dose is right!

katherin,i am 33 and take concerta so your son should be able to carry on if i wishes.

i am very lucky that there is an adult ADD specialist here in aberdeen.

i also get an IEP for my son and homestart once a day where a lady takes him all day to give me a break

im in cornwall and my daughter left school when she was 16 but before she became 16 she had to stop taking ritilin, she is now 22, son was told that he wouldnt be able carry on taking concerta when he left full time education im hopping this has changed i do know each areas health policies are diferant, my daughter also had a learning disability so she had statementing and also respite but son does not have a sever enough learning disability to gert statmented but the school he attends are giving all the extra help he needs, he used to get respite but there isnt a lot social services can offer him now, though he still gets dla and still has a social workerSandra what part of the UK are you from if you don't want to post this information here you are welcome to pm me, a GP isn't the right sort of doctor to diagnose your child, concerta works well if it suits the child my son asked to get a different form of med when he was ready to go to secondary school hes been on concerta ever since hes now 15, we see a psychiatrist for this he upped the meds when the 18mg dose wasn't enough, i also have an older daughter with add, and like one poster said they don't recognize add/adhd in adults in Britain they will not prescribe my son his meds when he leaves full time education, we are going to cross that bridge when the time comes, you can claim disabilities benefit for a child with adhd/ add you just got prove that they need more care than a child the same age, son been on this a while also if child has a learning difficulty in the UK there is a thing called family fund that can help out with things like holidays and washing machines, need more on this ask social services, they used to have a book with helpful address in my area, i have been dealing with this for a while my oldest daughter is 22 she was diagnosed at about 6yrs old, i also have asked for referal to a geenes clinic because then i will now were this came from and if it is passed on to my childrens children i think they have a right to now My son has adhd and has been diagnosed and gets full rate diability living allowance and oh my does he need that money.As for concerta my son became very depressed on it.he took 54mg of it a day,the tablets are huge and he found it hard to swallow.It is harder to get a child dianosed n uk than in usa though, and i have wondered what my child will do when he grows up! [QUOTE=scotmama]

ok,i also am from the uk,scotland.

i am taking concerta, and it works well for me but make sure he has only ADHD

[/QUOTE]

Sandra, your really need to go to a child psychologist or psychiatrist. 18 mg probably won't have much effect on his ADD. Push for the correct diagnosis.

Mine is on 54 mg. and the difference it makes is almost instant. We could tell from the first dose. He was on 36 mg. but we were playing beat-the-clock in the afternoons with his homework. The homework had to get done before the meds got out of his system. The doctor upped the dose and presto! The homework was done without threats, prodding, or pleading from me.