My 7year old son started 18mg of Concerta in October. Worked great for a month or so, but needed an increase. Went to 27mg. Noticed he was withdrawn and very flat emotionally. Lost weight. We switched back to 18mg about 3 weeks ago. The doctor said that if this doesn't help, the other alternative is Adderall. He is more himself, eating better and sleeping a better (not what I would consider normal for him though) but his teacher reports he is having emotional moments at school - either crying over simple mistakes he might make (and then getting over it fairly quickly) or getting angry over mistakes (once because he was reprimanded at recess).
I was wondering if anyone knows how much of Concerta is released initially and then how much and when the rest of the dose is released. I was thinking that perhaps the medicine is wearing off earlier than it should and perhaps it is just not right for him emotionally. He is able to get his work done in school and his activity level is manageable.
The only issue we have with 18 mg. of concerta is the sleep issue too....
I found if we are more physical in evenings it helps her to fall asleep....its was
taking her about 2 extra hours to fall asleep....up until 11 which was too late....
But the pro's out weigh this sleep issue.....so we are pleased at the results...
Better attitude and out look....not so hyper......No anger or outbusts or mood
swings......working pretty good so far....
My daughter also gets to bed late - though I don't know if I can totally blame it on the stimulants. Both my kids are night owls.With Concerta - 22% is initially released. I think the rest is slowly released throughout the day (but I could be wrong about this).
Mededate CD release 30% initially and slowly releases the rest.
Ritalin LA releases 50% and then another 50%.
The Concerta site (www.concerta.net) states that the overcoat of the medicine dissolves releasing 22% of the medicine within the 1st hour of taking it. One hour after that, the "push" compartment begins to expand releasing the medicine to cover the morning. Then in the afternoon the "push" compartment continues to expand releasing medicine throughout the afternoon. It is supposed to last about 12 hours.
My son just started taking Concerta last month. He is on 18mg. I have also noticed that he can be more emotional than usual at times. His behavior and ability to focus on tasks has improved dramatically, but he has trouble falling asleep about 2 nights a week. I am not sure what, if anything, can be done about the emotional issues, but I wanted you to know you aren't alone in that. We have it here too.
Let us know what you find out.
my daughter could not toelrate Concerta AT ALL. Very nervous, anxious, terrible tics, picking...etc., but she was not this bad on all stimulants nor all methylphedinate meds. Every med is different, You must have a balance of pros outweighing cons. If not, try a different med. There are so many different options out there.We started with Ritalin LA (10mg) and it worked well for my daughter. It just didn't last long enough. We added an afternoon booster and then switched her to Concerta 18 mg. She was very irritable and just not happy in the late afternoons. We found was that she actually need an increase in dosage. We bumped her to 27mg and things are much better for her. I think with the lower dosage, she was working so hard to keep it together at school that she was just losing it when she got home.I didn't sleep well last night. My daughter didn't get to sleep until 11pm. I hope she will be ok with the concerta today with only having 6 hours of sleep. Which is not normal for her! She is missing two hours her body is use to getting. I am just scared about the medication issue stilll. Someone please help me get completely comfortable with this. Urrrgghhhhh
[QUOTE=rhondacty]I didn't sleep well last night. My daughter didn't get to sleep until 11pm. I hope she will be ok with the concerta today with only having 6 hours of sleep. Which is not normal for her! She is missing two hours her body is use to getting. I am just scared about the medication issue stilll. Someone please help me get completely comfortable with this. Urrrgghhhhh
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She said her face itched, so she kept moving her mouth around. So I rubbed her face with lotion. It is that time of year. What I want to do is just QUIT my job sometimes, and get through these younger years with her.
[QUOTE=mamaou]No we don't have mood swings at all....I give her her med at 7 oclock and it last
until around 6 at night... Which I think is about 11 hours....which is good...we
try to do all homework right after school....when she is still in school mode...if we
wait longer it gets harder to get her interested in it.....
The only thing.... she eats dinner at 6 or 7 instead of the usual 4....she doesn't want any thing until then....
But in all its working good for us on this dose....18 mg so far....
no rages or anger signs at all....And No meltdowns
I like that I can now have a conversation with her, before she didn't really want to talk at all about anything .... like she didn't want to hear what you had to say????? Blew you off...
[/QUOTE]
Oh my heavens, your dd sounds exactly like mine. The normal conversation didn't occur while not on med's. Anything, like, "how was your day love"? That would set her off ino a meltdown or an anger issue. It feels good I'm not alone and that it isn't me that has caused her to be this way. Sometimes I would feel guilty that it was me that was making her mad. She would tell me, "its you" sometimes. I could ask her to come in for dinner from playing outside and that would set off into a meltdown. You know what I'm talking about????
No we don't have mood swings at all....I give her her med at 7 oclock and it last
until around 6 at night... Which I think is about 11 hours....which is good...we
try to do all homework right after school....when she is still in school mode...if we
wait longer it gets harder to get her interested in it.....
The only thing.... she eats dinner at 6 or 7 instead of the usual 4....she doesn't want any thing until then....
But in all its working good for us on this dose....18 mg so far....
no rages or anger signs at all....And No meltdowns
I like that I can now have a conversation with her, before she didn't really want to talk at all about anything .... like she didn't want to hear what you had to say????? Blew you off...
[QUOTE=mamaou]
The only issue we have with 18 mg. of concerta is the sleep issue too....
I found if we are more physical in evenings it helps her to fall asleep....its was
taking her about 2 extra hours to fall asleep....up until 11 which was too late....
But the pro's out weigh this sleep issue.....so we are pleased at the results...
Better attitude and out look....not so hyper......No anger or outbusts or mood
swings......working pretty good so far....
[/QUOTE]
so your dd is doing well on mood swings, anger issues? None of that increased? Today is DAY 1 on Concerta 18mg for my baby, I hate to see her unhappy. She is her happiest off of med's however.....it hurts her grades very bad!!!
[QUOTE=HorseMom]We started with Ritalin LA (10mg) and it worked well for my daughter. It just didn't last long enough. We added an afternoon booster and then switched her to Concerta 18 mg. She was very irritable and just not happy in the late afternoons. We found was that she actually need an increase in dosage. We bumped her to 27mg and things are much better for her. I think with the lower dosage, she was working so hard to keep it together at school that she was just losing it when she got home. [/QUOTE]
So when you started Concerta she was more irritable, mood swings and such????
That is the problem we had with Strattera.
I think the mood issue we were having were more from the dosage not being high enough rather than the Concerta itself. We had similar issues with the Ritalin LA/booster combo though I think the 18 mg of concerta might have been worse.