The identical thing happened with my 7 yr old son - Was taking Metadate 20 CD for 4 months and was doing fantastic. Refilled the prescription and noticed a big change. The teacher even notified me and asked if he missed his meds. I mentioned it to the doctor and he never heard of such a thing - I even brought them with me thinking that there was some way to check them - His dosage was increased and he seems to be doing okay. I also contacted the pharmacy but was told that it was not possible. Am I crazy?? Like you I can pinpoint the day and it coincides with the refill.
It seems possible it could be a bad batch. W/ Metadate, you don't want the time-release beads (or whatever they're called) to release too early. If you chew them, all of the meds release at once and you don't have any of the later-release dose. It seems to me that handling the med. too roughly possibly could do the same thing. Or perhaps they screwed up the batch and put only short-release beads into it and not the long-release ones (or vice-versa). Who knows, but of course a pharmaceutical can screw up. It's too coincidental that two posters had the dose no longer work on the exact day of starting the new batch of meds.
By any chance do you have any left of the earlier prescribing batch? I know I pick up my refills early but don't normally start using them until I've used up the older meds. Hopefully you don't also do this. If you give the older meds and they work normally, but then give the newer batch and there continues to be problems, obviously it would be the batch. If not, call the pharmaceutical and explain the problem. Hopefully they'll be willing to have you mail them the old batch and give you new ones (working through your pharmacy so you don't have days w/o meds). W/ it being a controlled substance, I doubt they'd be willing to give you more until you surrendered the other capsules.
Based on 2 posters' experiences that they shared, I'll now start a "sample dose" of the new batch on a weekend and make sure it seems the same. Thanks for sharing these experiences to help others potentially avoid the same possible.
Has anyone else had a problem with this? My 7 year old son was diagnosed last April with ADD (inattentive type), although he does show a lot of impulse control, especially when he gets angry. We started giving him Concerta at the end of the summer and this school year has gone so well. We switched to Metadate 3 months ago because the Concerta was wearing off so late, he couldn't go to sleep. The Metadate worked fine for the first two months. He had two days off from school for parent-teacher conferences making for a long weekend. During that weekend, we got his prescription refilled. It was like we hadn't given it to him. He was unfocused, talked, hummed or sang non-stop, and had several episodes of the uncontrollable anger. We gave him his old concerta for a couple of days and it seemed to work for him, but then had the sleep issue again. His doctor thought it might just be something else going on in his life just then and suggested that we put him back on the metadate. In the mean time, I called the pharmacy and the manufacturer to find out if we might have gotten a bad batch or something, but neither thought it was possible. So we gave him the metadate again, and to make a long story short, got suspended from school (first grade!) for pulling on a kids shirt in the bathroom. Now his doctor wants to switch him up to 30mg from 20, but it seems so sudden. Even his teacher said she could pinpoint the day he started having problems again and it coincides with the refill. Has anyone had this happen? Any suggestions? Thanks!My sister has ADHD she is now thirteen, I have been doing alot of research on medication and it is very scary. Please before you up the dose. Please look into other possable causes for your sons behavior, and other ways to help him. My sister has been off medication for two years now and she still can't sleep at night she maybe gets six hours of sleep. I know it is frustrating but it is worth it to really research it.Also don't forget to look into the responsabilities of the school. They have to accomadate your son BY LAW. There are other ways if you need to go to 10 different doctors don't listin to just one.