My son was diagnosed with ADHD in December. We started him on 10mg on Metadate and it had an immediate effect. However, my son thought he needed more so we tried 20mg a week later. My son thought he could concentrate better but the difference wasn't as great. He also complained about the it "running" out after 6 hours.
The doctor then put him on Concerta 36MG. This is supposed to be a longer lasting and more even dosing of the same drug, but my son says it doesn't work as well as 10MG of Metadate and he says it runs out after 4 hours.
My questions are:
How do you compare dosing of Metadate to dosing of Concerta?
Could it be 36MG of Concerta is appearing to run out earlier because he is being underdosed?
What would be the next thing to try?
my best friends son is on Concerta and at 10 he takes 54 mg plus a booster in am and booster in pm 10 mg Ritalin. Maybe he needs more call the doc.The delivery systems are different between Concerta and Medadate CD.
Concerta releases 22% of the drugs initially and then the rest is released throughout the day. Lasts 10-12 hours Medadate CD releases 30% of the drug initially and then remainder over the rest of the day. Lasts 10-12 hours Ritalian LA released 50% initially and then another 50% Lasts 6-8 hoursI am not totally sure how to compare them all. But my understanding is the 18 mg of Concerta is about the same as 15 mg total of ritalin in a day. That is what we went to initially when we switched from 10 mg of Ritalin LA plus a 5 mg boster. I don't have experience with Medadate CD, but I would think that a 20ms would be the same as 18 concerta.
The different delivery systems work differently for everyone. Concerta might not be right for him or he could need a higher dose. You could try Ritalin LA and see how long it lasts. If you got 6 hours out of it, maybe you could do a boster or a second dose to get the coverage you needed.
Good luck.
[QUOTE=dabhome]My son was diagnosed with ADHD in December. We started him on 10mg on Metadate and it had an immediate effect. However, my son thought he needed more so we tried 20mg a week later. My son thought he could concentrate better but the difference wasn't as great. He also complained about the it "running" out after 6 hours.
The doctor then put him on Concerta 36MG. This is supposed to be a longer lasting and more even dosing of the same drug, but my son says it doesn't work as well as 10MG of Metadate and he says it runs out after 4 hours.
My questions are:
How do you compare dosing of Metadate to dosing of Concerta?
Could it be 36MG of Concerta is appearing to run out earlier because he is being underdosed?
What would be the next thing to try?
[/QUOTE]
How old is he? Depending on his age he could go as high as 72 mgs oc Concerrta, but his psych would be the best judge of which med is right and at what dosage.