Med Change? Weird.. | ADHD Information

My daughter tried the Ritalin and the Adderall.   The Ritalin worked for a week and then when we increased the dosage, she started hallucinating.

Adderall made her mean and nasty.

She is currently on Vyvanse and we LOVE IT.  The only problem we are having is lack of sleep which I'm working on.  It is a very gentle medication that doesn't give the child the rush they feel with the other meds.  It has done wonders for my 6 year old.

Well, 10mg in the morning and 5mg in the afternoon WAS relieving the symptoms that the psych was most worried about.. the impusivity, hyperactivity.. you know, the behaviors most associated with ADHD.. but it made him overly emotional and generally out of sorts. It concerned me, so I told the doc, and he suggested that we try the Concerta because it was constantly released into his system and it might aleviate his emotional..ness.

So we tried the Concerta for almost a week and it wasn't doing anything at all. The first day we had him on it was a Thursday and his school called asking that we come pick him up because he was having a very bad day. He didn't go to school Friday (2nd day) and Saturday and Sunday he took the Concerta, and I noticed that it made NO difference in his behavior at all.

Yesterday, I put him back on Ritalin ( I know they're the same medication, but for information sake, we'll pretend they're different) and I didn't get a call from the school. I called and they said he had a great day, that they couldn't have asked for a better student.

So... I don't know what exactly it would mean, but I know that everyone is always asking about medicaitons, and for my son, the low doses twice a day are working and the 27mg Concerta once a day isn't working at all.

My experience was that the first time my son tried concerta it didn't seem to work.  However, after about a year on other ritalin meds, we tried concerta again and presto - it worked wonders.  Not sure why...I've heard this before from others who tried Concerta as one of their first meds.  I wonder if your body has to somehow be used to the stims for the release system of concerta to work.

Interesting.

[QUOTE=G-mom] I started my son who is almost 5 on metidate cd 10mg, based on the advise of his phyc.  He took the medication for 2 days and acted completley different. He was very emotional and became frustrated easily. I didn't see any benefits to his behavior changes.  We stopped the meds, was wondering if anyone had any advise?[/QUOTE]



This was similar with my son. He cried over everything, and most of the crying was out of frustration. He said that it's not a side effect of the medication, but a side effect of the ADHD. I was told that my son spent most of his life dealing with emotions and situations the wrong way, and now that he's on a medication that will help him think about his actions before he acts, he doesn't know the right way to deal with emotions and situations. The crying and frustration, my doctor told me, are similar to a small child ( 1-2 years old) learning how to be angry, sad, frustrated, upset.. a child that small doesn't know how to deal with those emotions the right way, and he has to be taught those skills.

My doctor said that with a little counselling and a lot of parental support, my son would get better at dealing with his emotions, and be less emotional and frustrated.

I hope this might help you. emotional lability CAN be a side effect of the meds. We saw it with Adderall. My point is that Concerta and regular release Ritalin are not your only options. They are ll methylphediante, but they are not all the same drug. You know what you've got form the Ritlain, why not try some of the others, you can always go back to it. Some kids don't do well with the ups and downs of using regular release. I would try Ritalin LA.If consistent dosing is your issue, it's also worth looking into Daytrana.  My son did well on Ritalin LA, OK but emotional on Metadate, and awful on Adderall.  We switched to the patch because it gets him through homework, which is a bigger deal now that he's in 4th grade.   He definitely "comes down" off of it the easiest of all the meds.

I know it seem overwhelming with all the different medications, but seeing how so many children with the same diagnosis respond so differently to the medicines, I'm thrilled that there are so many choices. 
Hi, I posted before about my son being emotional with the Ritalin (10mg in the morning and 5mg @ noon) , well, at our one week checkup our doctor changed his prescription to Concerta (27mg).

WELL... I don't have anything good to say about it. He's been on it for 5 days now, and it's just like he's back to the same kid that I had before the diagnosis.

With the Ritalin, it did what it was supposto, it calmed him down, made him think and he was more receptive to direction. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it made him emotional, overly emotional about everything.

Once we switched to Concerta, it was back to same ole same ole, with some added un-niceness of not sleeping (AT ALL) and wetting the bed again.

So, anyone wondering.. that's my experience, and we're going back to the Ritalin low dose, because it works for us, and Concerta doesn't. Concerta is the same med as Ritalin, methylphenidate. It does release differently however, so instead of getting 10 mgs, then 5, he is now getting 12.5 in the am and 12.5 in the pm. I am surprised that the Psych didn't try the 18mg first. I started my son who is almost 5 on metidate cd 10mg, based on the advise of his phyc.  He took the medication for 2 days and acted completley different. He was very emotional and became frustrated easily. I didn't see any benefits to his behavior changes.  We stopped the meds, was wondering if anyone had any advise?

Actually,  I think Concerta releases three doses throughout the day and not two.   27mg would 3 dose of 9mg.  

Given that he was taking a total of 15 mg before,  the 18 mg might have been a better dose.

If the Concerta is lasting too long,  you could consider Ritalin LA.  It does two dose through the day.  The lowest dose is 10 mg.   It's delivery system is different than Concerta and might work better for you son.

it sounds like you are saying the Concerta is not relieveing his symptoms? If so lowering the dose probably won't be the answer. I agree that trying a different delivery system may be a good choice. My daughter did MUCH better on Ritalin LA than Concerta.

I believe that Concerta does not have 3 equal doses - I think it is 22% initially.  So if you are giving him 10mg of Ritalin in the morning, on Concerta he will only be getting 6mg initially.  That may be the problem.

Ritalin SR or LA might be a better alternative, as has been suggested.

 

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