Both my children have been on concerta for at least 2 years. Both have developed negative symptoms we have attrituted to concerta use. My son is very anxious, panicks at the slightest request, trouble focusing on anything in particular, can't sleep and angry. Our daughter has become indecisive, anxious, hyperfocus to the point that she thinks problems out and can't make decisions, tired, difficulty sleeping and "foggy" in the head. Also she lost weight, looked "pale" and best decribed as being delicate. We put it down to the stress of school.
Recently I took her for testing, which revealed that her memory on concerta was very poor but much better on quick release.
She is now on quick release ritalin ever 4 hours and our son ever 3 hours. He is so much better!!!!! Like night and day!!!!!! We didn't think that the meds were having such a negative hyperfocussing effect on them.
Just wanting to know if this or other symptoms have happened to other long term users.
Chase was on it for about 9 months when I noticed the beginnings of some of these same things....at about the same time, I was kicked off of the patient assistance program that provided the med, so we switched. Ritalin LA has been so much better for Chase. He says it works better than the concerta ever did.
Ritalin LA didn't work well for our son because it had 2 "dumps" of medication. This left a ditch in the level of medication in his system. Isn't it amazing how we tend to look for other factors - now the problem we have is how do we get the medication into him during the day at school? His fast metabolism means that he would need 2 trips to the office for meds. This is where home schooling worked well but now he's at school we will have to think again!!!!
Thanks for the info Chasesmom!
We tried just about all of the stims and found concerta xr works best here. Wm has been on it for over 6 yrs. although he does take guanfacine to aid his sleep and it helps the anxiety.One of my best friend's daughter has had some of the same issues. SHe was on concerta for 1 1/2 years and recently became very hyperfocused and argumentative. Switched her to focalin XR and doing much better except for the fact it wears off too soon.
My dd has been on adderall Xr for almost 4 years but we have tryed concerta, daytrana and focalin. Of all those the concerta was the worst for her- it almost gave her nervous energy and made her argumentative which she is normally not at all. Daytrana worked well for her but she could NOT sleep and had a bad skin reaction. I marveled at how differently the concerta and the daytrana effected her since it is the same drug just a different delivery system. Daytrana was much much better. Maybe your kids would do well on the patch, no dosing at school!
Your daughter's symptoms (indecisive, anxious and hyperfocus) sound like me unmedicated!
For chase the gap falls right at lunch time and he is thrilled that he is hungry for lunch again! Then he has recess and by the time he has class again, the medication is back up and running. He is also mainly inattentive, so that could be why it is OK too....