Hi,
My son age 10 almost 11 was on Ritalin LA 30 last year and we switch early this school year to 40mg with a 10mg booster after school. We needed more coverage for homework. We tried last week switching to Concerta 54mg and for a few days I thought it was working, but after about 5 days there was rebound and he was overly emotional. Also, the teachers reported that week that he was argumentative and difficult. These were behaviors they had not seen in him.
So, this week we are adding 20mg after school (plus the morning dose). It's really too early for me to decide if it's the best alternative for him. One day seems good the next just so so. It's my understanding the the down side to Ritalin LA is that it does not last as long as advertised. It's more about 6 maybe 8 hours. That seems to hold true for my son.
As you will read on this board every child is so different that you just have to try it.
Hi, my 7 year old son have ADHD and was on Ritalin30mg LA(past 2 years), we recently found that the meds are not working like it used to in the past, and discussed changing to Concerta 36mg. He started with the new meds today and I'm concerned how it will go in school. How fast does this meds work and how soon can you see what effect it have? With the Ritalin lately we experience that he couldn't concentrate that long as in the past and that he is very argumentive and is in constant rivalry at school as well as at home with his 3year old sister. Will the Concerta better his behaviour and will his concertration be better in school than with the Ritalin? Is there anybody who have any experience or advise on this? This is the first time I'm writing to people with similliar problems and it is wonderful to know that there are people one can talk to who would understand. I sometime feel that he is draining me emotionally, cause he is always the one who wants the last say and he is playing on my emotions a lot. I love my son to bits, but seem to not get to him as I would like to. Any advise?
Ritalin LA and Concerta are both methylphedinate meds. My daughter has taken both. There is no way to know ahead how he will react to the switch or if it will help him more. Unfortunatley. Ritalin LA is a 10 hour meda nd Concerta a 12, so it should last longer, it did for us. Good luck.My daughter used 10 mg Ritalin LA for the first year. It worked well for use - just not long enough. For her, it latest about 6 hour.
This fall, we needed more coverage, so we added an afternoon short acting Ritalin dose and then soon switched to 18 mg of Concerta. The Concerta lasted 9 hours, but I was finding my daughter to be very irritable and angry in the afternoons. The initial release of the Concerta also wasn't enough, so I started adding a 5 mg short acting in the morning and then another 5 mg in the afternoon. That was a little better. The next change we made as to goto 27mg of Concerta. This is working really well for us right now. The angry and irritability are gone.
We use 20 mg of Ritalin LA on days were we don't need the 9 hour coverage Concerta provides. I use it primarily on the weekends if she gets up late.
Since the delivery system is different between the LA and the Concerta, you may notice some difference. If your morning coverage doesn't appear to be as good, it is probably because only 22% of the dosage is release initially compared to 50% with the Ritalin LA. So if you were using 30 mg LA, you get 15 mg initially. With 36 mg Concerta it is only 8 mg. That's a pretty big difference. You might need to go up in dosage if it doesn't work.