Concerta not working anymore?

My son, 7 yrs old was diagnosed with ADHD last September and put on 18mg Concerta, increased to 36 mg a month later. The medicine was working so well and I felt as though the boy I always knew was inside, was finally able to come out. We had more peace in our home because he wasn't out-of-control all the time and we noticed our family and friends wanted to be around him more. It was wonderful after 6 years of every interaction with him being one of conflict. The worst side effect however was he couldn't get to sleep at night. AFter 3 months of tryiing all kinds of "tricks" we decided to put him on 1/2 of .1mg Clondine, recommended by the Dr.. He was getting to sleep much quicker but I noticed he didn't seem to be doing quite as well during the day. Then I wondered if maybe he was doing so well before the Clondine because he was too tired all the time to misbehave more so than the medication being effective. In the past month we decided to wean him off the Clondine in hopes that he can sleep now without it. Thankfully, it seems to have "reprogrammed" his body into being able to get to sleep. However, since we started weaning him off it and now without it seems the Concerta has no effect whatsoever. He's required more discipline in the past few weeks than in the whole 4 months prior. I'm back to the same feelings of desperation that I had before he originally went on the meds. I called the Dr. (who seemed too busy to listen to me) and he recommended increasing him to 54 mg saying that because of titration, he might not have been at the most effective dose for him. I'm not very comfortable with such an increase until I know for sure it is what he needs. Has anyone had an experience with Concerta where it seemed to work for several months and then all of a sudden it didn't? Has anyone had a similar experience with the Concerta and then adding Clonadine and not doing as well? Is it normal to need increases in meds in such a short time, especially when it had been working so well?

Please help!!!!

My little girl was on concerta for 2 years started at 18mg and they kept upping the dose through the 2 years and the last dose was 54 mg.She was on clonidine aLso to help her sleep.last wed we took her right off the concerta because when they upped the dose to 54 mg she starte4d getting very violent and moody and could not sleep.In 5 days she had 7 hours sleep and i said enough is enough.The doctor took her off of the concerta totally and she is on clonidine 3 times a day a half tab at 7 am half tab at noon and a whole tab at 6 pm and to help her sleep they told me to try melatonin 1 mg,you buy it at GNc or wal mart and that has helped a lot.The only thing i noticed that i dont like about just the clonidine is she is sleepy a lot more,she is eating like crazy(which isnt abad thing cause she never ate much on concerta).This may be wrong but the doctor told me to SOME children after so long concerta takes the effects like crack cocaine and thats what they think with my little girl cause she started seeing things that were not there she was not sleeping,and she was talking about killing people it was not my little girl it was like someone took over her little body.Good luck and keep in touch.

Hi my name is Renee, I understand what you are going through. My son will be 9 next month. He was diagnosed with ADHD, in 1st grade, he is now in 3rd, they have changed his meds, so many times he started out with adderall, then went to concerta 18, then 36, now 54 which worked well up until a few months ago, it seemed to pretty much have little effect. I mean when hes home with me he gets pretty hyper at times. But not too big of a problem , however, his doctor now wants me to give him concerta 54+18+ straterra 60 and ritalin 5 after school for moodiness if applicable. This is ridiculous . I only give him concerta 54, and do not even like doing that. He still cries about taking his meds. Teacher is rough on him. Littlest mistakes he gets marked up on. Yet I hear stories about the other kids and it seems they are never disciplined. Concerta seems to make him not want to eat much , sometimes dont want to sleep but he is getting c's in school, handwriting getting sloppy again. I feel what is the use of this pill. Dr. says its normal for it to wear off with time. need to increase dosage. I wish you luck with your child. I'd like to talk to you, maybe we can offer each other advice. In my situation, I pretty much feel forced to give him meds by the school, they were starting to call over little stuff usually. It seems they use my son as the scapegoat. Is it that way in your situation? now if I miss a day of giving him meds . I usually will get a call they can tell, but give no credit for the fact that he is on meds and trying his hardest. Well I didn't mean to babble on it's just so frustrating. Hope to hear from you, ReneeI am currently on Adderall XR 20mg once daily. I've been taking it for the last 4 months, and I can tell from my experience that my hand writting is sloppier than it was before I started the medicine. The medicine just makes you want to do things faster and get it over with, so don't be so hard on your son about that.

Dear Sandra M,

Thank you for responding to my post. Wow, that must have been scary to see a change like that in your daughter after going to 54 mg. It makes me real nervous to try it. It's amazing how many different reports you hear out there. One expert will say that the meds don't become ineffective over time except in cases of big growth change, age, etc. Other experts say the meds can become ineffective in a short time. Some say 54mg isn't alot for this age, others say it sounds like too much. It's so hard to know what to believe! Have you found that the Clonadine doesn't take effect as quickly as it did when you first started it? Seemed that way with us.

HI Renee,

Thanks for the reply. Looks like you and I joined at the same time! Do you know how much time your son was on each dose of Concerta before it was increased each time? It just seems that it shouldn't "wear off" in just 3 months time like it feel like it is. Especially for a little 7 year old. The Dr. doesn't seem like it's unusual to do that, but I don't have 100 percent confidence in him. Does the 54mg have negative side effects the others didn't besides the fact that he cries having to take it? Interesting you mentioned your son's handwriting getting sloppy again. I've noticed that with my son too. Sorry to hear what a difficult time you and your son are having with his school. Don't know about you, but after a while I get very tired of everyone telling me all the wrong things my son does. I can live on a compliment for weeks, but grow weary of the negative. However, I do homeschool my kids so I don't have the headaches some people do in dealing with the schools. I think knowing who my son is, homeschholing is the best thing for him. My husband and I decided on our own to put my son on medication after much research and soul searching. He is very hyperactive, but in a way that is extremely annoying to everyone he is around. Every day was a test of faith and patience and his little brother screamed all day long because of Josh annoying him physically (not in an angry way though). We had no peace, I was getting depressed, and I could tell my son had gotten to a terribly low point in his self confidence and esteem. We decided we would rather put our child on medication and have a healthy happy home and child, than to not do it and have him never recover confidence, have friends, or have a good relationship with us.

May I ask Renee, is your son's dr. a psychiatrist or a regular md? We went to a regular MD because he was referred by a friend. I wonder how many people go through all the dr. "teams" or work just with a family dr. or peds dr. I'm wondering if we need to go to a psychiatrist in order to get a dr. who will really listen to us and have more experience with ADHD meds.

I would recommend seeing a psychiatrist (MD) for the medicine issues and behavioral therapist or psychologist for dealing with the other problems (communication, organization, etc) with ADHD. For about ayear and half my son was on Concerta (first 18, then 27, then 36) and our MD didn't want him to be on the 54 mg because that was like a last resort for him and he's really small and was 8 at the time. It did seem to lose effectiveness and I was told that they do build a tolerance, some disagree with that, however.

We then tried Adderall XR which made him really angry and aggressive (we dealt with that 9 months) before quitting them all for about 3 months. Now we're trying Ritalin LA, the Ritalin class just works better for him than Adderall. We're seeing a behavior therapist the end of the month and she's told me she'll find ways to deal with the specific things. We'll see

I'm going to tell all of you right quick, XR is one of the harshest treatments out there, and I know for a fact, but Concerta's not much better. No child should be on 54mg. I'm on 54 mg and I'm 20 years old and in college. I still have my own problems with it, so much that sometimes it scares me. Any doctor who tells you to put a 7 year old on 54 mg is a moron. Try adding 5mg of focalin. For a 7 year old to be on 54 mg is like for me to take a dose about 5 hours after my first dose, which I've tried during finals- what happens is pretty much worse than a hangover, because it won't leave you and you just want someone to shoot you or knock you out. It's not all that painful just sickening. As for the seeing things, both concerta and adderall xr had similar effects on me. I came out of a psych class one day and my friend and I were waiting at the bus stop and I said "Dude, the sidewalk is movin and it has swirls goin on inside". Also, my lights in my dormroom my freshman year (when I was on XR) were fluorescent-when i would look up at them, after a couple of seconds they would start waving. You start seeing things and feeling things after a while. I feel so sorry for the kids, because they don't know what to think of it. These things happened to me only a year or two ago, so I was able to deal with them. I hope that this helped ya'll out.by the way, the reason I'm up at this hour (1:09am EST) is because I took my concerta at 10am instead of 8, and then took my focalin in the afternoon......as directed... toodlesAlso, I've found that if you develop what some consider to be a "tolerance" then all you have to do is take one or two days out of the weekend or during a break without the medication. Chances are the child will do a lot of sleeping, but that's what I do. If i find that my concerta is "wearing off", I just won't take it in on the weekends, but rather two of my 5mg focalin, which in turn gives me just enough control for weekends, and during the week, the Concerta works fine.

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