Focalin XR-what on earth is this stuff? | ADHD Information

Focalin XR worked very well for my son once a couple of weeks went by. Then some of the side effect were gone and he was doing great. and it is common to become imune to a dosage.

Focalin is a non racemic form of methylphenidate, Other forms of methylphenidate such as Concerta and Metadate are mixtures of two mirror images (isomers) of the methylphenidate molecule. The body may metabolize the dextro (right handed) form of a compound differently from its mirror image the levo (left handed) form. In the case of methylphenidate, the dextro isomer is the active compound, and the levo form has minimal activity. Thus, Novartis recommends that when you switch from regular methylphenidate to Focalin, you start with half as much Focalin. Head to head studies do not show that Focalin is superior to a twice as big dose of Ritalin. However, some individuals experience it as lasting longer and causing less irritability .

 

It is not based on weight, and yes, you can build a tolerance to it.

Well, literally, I know what this stuff is.  I've been researching it to try and fully understand its compound and how it works.  But man, this medicine has made me feel a wide variety of VERY weird things.  I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar experience while taking Focalin XR, and what I should do.

I'm 18 and I've been taking 20mg of Focalin XR for a few months now.  I weigh about 120-125 pounds and I'm about 5'6'.  My doctor told me to take the 10mg for about three days to adjust to it, and then to take 2 capsules which puts me at 20mg.  So I've been taking the 20mg for a month or two, but I'm afraid that I've become tolerant to it.  Is that even possible?  At first, I felt my brain click that way that medicine serves to do, and that was good.  But that hardly lasted a week!  Now I just feel basically nothing.  It's really slightly better than nothing.

Why does the medicine work like that?  Did I built a tolerance?  Anyone have a similar experience?  Maybe I should try a higher dosage, who knows! 







P.S. While I was waiting for the confirmation e-mail to join the forum, I forgot my username and password!  I have a very good memory, I probably just wasn't paying attention when I made my account.  It's funny, I feel like there should be a huge blinking arrow on the webpage pointing to our account information (we do have add after all haha), but unfortunately there isn't, and I can't seem to find out what my username and password are.  Anyone know where I can find that? 
[QUOTE=pxro1104] I'm 18 and I've been taking 20mg of Focalin XR for a few months now.  I weigh about 120-125 pounds and I'm about 5'6'.  My doctor told me to take the 10mg for about three days to adjust to it, and then to take 2 capsules which puts me at 20mg.  So I've been taking the 20mg for a month or two, but I'm afraid that I've become tolerant to it.  Is that even possible?  At first, I felt my brain click that way that medicine serves to do, and that was good.  But that hardly lasted a week!  Now I just feel basically nothing.  It's really slightly better than nothing.[/QUOTE]

My 9 year old son started taking Focalin a couple years ago (I''m fuzzy on the exact time period, but we started it after concerta and adderall made him weepy)... first the short acting stuff (5 mg) three times a day, then later up to 10 mg, then the 10mg xr when it was approved, then the 20mg for the several months.

He's 55 pounds.  As you can see from the above, he slowly worked up a tolerance to it all.  And despite the advertising, the XR onlly worked about 6 hours before it wore off... causing us to have to add another 10 mg short one in the PM (for some reason he did better on the lower dose of the short-acting compared to the higher dose of the XR).

Oh, and the rebound was horrible.  So much so that we are going to try Vyvanse this week... crossing our fingers that the weepiness won't happen.

So to answer your question, yes Focalin has a weird history with working up tolerances, at least for our son.

Audrey