Hello,

I started Concerta on 2/14/05 for ADHD and various other related problems. I am in my 50s and was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I also have clinical depression, bi-polar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. Whew!

I noticed that I have pain in different parts of my body. It is a muscular pain or ache, rather than joint pain, which was listed as a side effect. It almost seems like I exercized too much or did too much physically. I've been taking Tylenol, which helps. However, I don't want to take Tylenol every day.

I started 18mg once a day for 4 days. Then, I increased the dosage to 36mg once a day for another 4 days. Now, I am taking 54mg.

Has anyone else had similar problems? If so, did the aches and pains go away and when? The pharmacist said he had not heard of this as a side effect.

Thank you for your help. And good luck to all of you.

Regards, amelia

I am not on Concerta so I can't help you there but I am on adderall and I have tense, tight muscles in my shoulder and neck.  I think it has something to dow ith the increased adrenaline from stimulants.  I think :)  It is annoying but I am just glad I don't get migraines or tension headaches from it. 

Just a thought.  Has your energy level increased and therefore your activity level as well?  Could it be that your just doing more? 

help me

HI my name is nate i have just been put on staterra on the 19th i took 18mg for 4 days then today i started 25mg i have been having bad side effects of mood swings and pains. yet no one believes me not my mom not my doctor. I hate it and can'tstand it. i feel horrible and need help please email anythign that will help at phycovampiricangel@yahoo.com i need to convinve them

No one believes me or cares please help inned advice and need to know i am not the only one with this problem

Hi Nate,

I'm sorry that you're having problems with Concerta. Almost from the start, I began having muscle aches and pains. These pains were in my legs, arms, shoulders, and back. At first, I thought it was because I had increased my physical activity a little and was feeling pain from that. However, the pain has continued and my psychiatrist thinks it is because of the Concerta even though this is not a listed side effect. The aches and pains come and go and are very bothersome.

Talk about mood swings! The Concerta made my hypomania much worse. And it also increased my depression. I never accomplished anything productive while on Concerta for 11 days. I was all over the place and couldn't concentrate on anything. My husband told me that when I talked, I jumped from one topic to another to another, and never finished any of them! I had insomnia and couldn't sleep many nights. One night, I got so depressed, I called the Mental Health hotline to talk to them.

I also felt much more anxious, almost an underlying anxiety. Well, that anxiety increased and today was horrible. I had to have a friend come and stay with me. I started getting worse and was worrying that I was going to die. I realized that my body was starting to go into a major panic attack, something I have NOT had in 18+ years. I was hot and sweaty, couldn't breathe, started having tingling sensations up and down my legs and arms, was in total fear, and totally scared. In the early evening, I took a shower and got dressed to go to the Emergency Room. I also called my psychiatrist. I had talked to him several days ago about my concerns, but we agreed to try the Concerta a little longer. But tonight, we both agreed the Concerta was making me a complete mess! He told me to stop taking it.

Although the aches and pains are not listed as a side effect, the psychiatrist thought it could be caused by the Concerta. I hope this helps you. I'll also send this information to the e-mail addy. Good luck and take care.

Regards, amelia

Nate,

Oops ... you said you're on Straterra. I have never taken that, so I have no idea about it. I was taking Concerta.

amelia 

help me

HI my name is nate i have just been put on staterra on the 19th i took 18mg for 4 days then today i started 25mg i have been having bad side effects of mood swings and pains. yet no one believes me not my mom not my doctor. I hate it and can'tstand it. i feel horrible and need help please email anythign that will help at phycovampiricangel@yahoo.com i need to convinve them

No one believes me or cares please help inned advice and need to know i am not the only one with this problem

[/QUOTE]

Nate,

      There are alot of posts on here about strattra you might have to go back and look at some of them. See if you Mom is willing to read them with you.

its nate again

heres my story

this story is true i am tellling it so  epopele may learn from it. In elementry school i got straigth As but because of adderall that i was put on i was hated. If someone got me mad i would snap. But that wasn't the worsest of my troubles.  There were a group of kids who eveyday would hunt me down intot he sand box and would start up a fight. I wouldn't lose but i would get hurt too. But what hurt me most is the fact that my friends didn't stand up for me even after i stood up for them. This was all because the way i would snap at everyone. the problem was noboy believed me until mid 7th grade that was4 years of torment. i was lucky to be live after i attepmteed suicide by hanging andoverdosing niether one did i go to the hospital and niether one worked. so during 6ht grae there was less torment because most people didn't knowme but i waslosing weigth like crazy. by the winter of 7th grade i weighed a whopping 64 pounds at 4' 9". Now during all of this i didn'tjust get mood swings mine were so bad at one time we thought i had bi polar except for the fact that instead of sometimes this was 24 7i dont think i was happy or for more than 1 day from 2nd to 7th grade. Now to make matters worth thesummer from 6th to 7th my friend commited suicide in 3rd grade mygrandma died and in 4th or 5th my other friend died from, cancer.then from 5th to 6th grade my parents divorced and from 7th to 8th my dad moved to CT ( hes te one i want to lie with) Then i was put on concerta on which in three weeks i gainaround 45 bls so i wa way over weight. i still am now its harder to lose than gain. alos i ha mod swings. so then i was put on Efexor which during the first month i was hyper but after that i was fine. Effexor isnt a Adhd med its a combo anti depressANT  and anti nervous togetehr i was able to concentrate. The this past quarter of 8th grade my grades slippedand my mom blamed the med when really it was her. She treats me poorly not phycasically she doen't hit me she does something worse. She emotionally abuses me she screams she doesn't follow logicshe doesn't care when i am in pain. now most people would say oh how would you know. I KNOW BECUASE I HAVE BEEN THROUGH ENOUHG TO ALLOW ME TO SEE THE FULL VEIW OF THE WORLD BOTH GOOD AND BAD. now she is putting me on straterra and says the mood swings i have been getting aren't the med but she also say the fact that i am focusing more is the med. yet sh says 5 days hasn't been enought time to see it work but she says it already helping.

       This is my life to date that i remember i ont remember anything before i was 7 i cant stand it and noonebeeives me about the meds sideeffects not my mom not my doc well noone but my dad bnut he lies in CT and i live in MD. Hes a doc to not the same type but he does engouhg reaserch to know. i should be living with him not my mom

P.S. if you want to see smethign my dad jsut came out with go to   www.publishamerica.com then in the search box type Steven Lobel

Hi Nate. Your dad's book sounds interesting....I'm going to have to wait until it comes to the library, since I have no income at the time.

I am really sorry that your doctor (or your mother) will not listen to you. And it's too bad that you are not in a position to change your doctor yourself. Anyway, I'm going to mention something about what I am hearing in your above post. I don't want to scare you, because it will sounds worse than it is. It sounds to me, especially from the description of your life up until now, with your family and peers, like you may have Borderline Personality Disorder. And perhaps ADHD/ADD also. If you're not sure what that is, there are some good sites on line. Just do a search. Perhaps you can print out something you can take with you to the doctor next time you see them. It has to do with not being validated, such as you feel pain, and your mother says you don't. It's much more involved than that, but I suggest you look it up on the internet.

Do you get to see the doctor alone, or does your mother go in with you? It is my belief that you should have the privacy of speaking with your doctor alone. ADD/ADHD and BPD have symtoms that are somewhat similar. Also, it usually takes more than just one med to find what works for you if it is ADHD.

Also, since I'm not a doctor, I can only speculate that if you don't have ADHD, the meds you're taking wouldn't work, and perhaps make your body ache from the stimulant. It's just a thought.

I sympathize with you, Nate, because I have both ADHD and BPD, and have since childhood, but was never diagnosed until I was in my 50s! And my childhood sounds sooo much like yours so far. So it breaks my heart when you have the opportunity to do something about it, improve the quality of your life, and are not getting the support you need from mother or doctor.   

Good lucy, Nate!