Concerta | ADHD Information

I have a a child about to turn 13 that is on Concerta.   She has been on this medication since August 2004.    Before taking Concerta she was on Adderal XR.    The Adderral XR caused excessive weight loss and when the medication began to wear off she had strong mood swings.    When she first began taking Concerta it seemed like a wonder drug!   Her appetite improved, she had very minimul weight loss, her grades are phenomenal, the mood swings seemed to slow down quite a bit and she seemed to be the person I knew lived inside her.   For a while everything was fantastic.    I started noticing a small increase in mood swings again around mid December, then the mood swings began to increase.    Things seem to be getting worse.  She has begun to tell stories or lies about simple things.  It's like she creates situations in her mind.   I can ask her a question about something and she will make up an answer sometimes that makes no since or that I know is a lie.    There are times it is over something very little like how was your day at school and she tells me this story with great detail about something that happened that did not actually happen at all.     She can be the sweetest and most loving child one minute then turn into an angry vengeful person out of the blue.    There are days when I can tell she wants to fight or argue.   She will try to pick fights with me by making little digs or comments and is relentless in trying to get a response.   Then once she calms down, she's fine and it's "oh I'm sorry, I love you, I didn't mean it".   It's like she goes from Jeckel to Hyde.   She told me her brother insulted someone, yelled at her and made up some elaborate story with impressive details as to what happened.   Come to find out from someone who was there, what she said never happened at all.   She instead was the one trying to pick a fight with her brother.    It's as if this unexplainable rage or anger comes over her sometimes.   When she is on the medicine most of the time she is ok but when the medicine begins to wear off, which I have noticed to be about 6 to 8 hours later, you never know what she is going to do or what kind of mood she will be in.    Her impulse control seems to be really off also.    She seems to be acting on whatever comes into her head again - mostly when the medicine is wearing off but sometimes even on the medicine.   She also seems to be having what I guess could be called anxiety attacks or seems paranoid about things.   She had it in her head the other day that because she made her brother mad that he was in the house destroying her clothes and I had a horrible time convincing her that he wasn't.   She builds up situations in her mind that she believes are going to happen or have happened.   She even creates supporting facts to strenghen her belief...like someone else was there and saw it or told her yes this happened......no one was there and the whole thing was just a lie.    Her grades are still good and her appetite is great but the mood swings, lies and anger seem to be getting worse.   She is angry most mornings before she takes her medicine then once it kicks in she is usually better, but when it begins to wear off, watch out.   She just seems to get easily agitated some days and little things seem to get on her nerves.   Some days are fine others aren't.   The lying really bothers me alot, because it's over such little things I don't know what to believe and what not to.   She got up one morning and was just full of anger, she couldn't find anything to wear nothing was good enough, refused to cooperate in getting ready, ran in the bathroom and locked the door refusing to come out, when I tried to get her out the door for school, she still wasn't dressed.   I sent her back to her room to get some clothes and she came back with clothes that she announced were to small and she could not wear them.   When I got on to her and said she was going to have to get something that fit because we had to leave, she ran out into the garage in a t-shirt and underwear screaming and crying that I was going to hit her.   I never even acted like that was a possibility.   She was so out of control that I had to keep her home from school because she could not have functioned in that state.   She yelled at me then for a while saying everything is my fault and that she wished she could just die.   She would say things like "you don't want me to go to school because you hate me"...."You don't care about me".......She would say she hated me and that she wished I would get in a car wreck and die.   It's a scary thing when you watch a child get that out of control and say those things.   About an hour later, her medicine had kicked in and she began to calm down and I was able to speak to her rationally.   She broke down in tears and told me she was sorry and that she loved me.   She did not even remember saying half of what she said.  That was the worst "fit" she'd had in a very long time.    I've heard that people on Concerta have been reported to have severe mood swings and they are constantly up and down, up and down.    I've also heard that paranoia and anxiety have been reported.    I don't know what to do.   I'm going to schedule her an appointment to speak with her doctor about other medications or see if her medication dosage could be off.    Lots of people are telling me she needs to try Stratera.   I've heard however, that Statera is not as effective as Concerta, Ritalin or Adderral.     I would like to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences with Concerta.    I would also like to know any information about Stratera that anyone has such as it's effectiveness.    It's hard for other people to understand if they don't have someone in their life with ADHD.   I'm thrilled to know there is a board like this where people can share experiences.Hi, I just read your email and had to reply.  My son is 11 and was on the Adderall and now just on the Concerta.  We have had some episodes of mood swings.  Not too bad though.  He picks on his brother REAL BAD before the medicine kicks in .  All I can say is, Strateera is not a stimulant and works differently.  I was told by a doc that this wouldn't be as good for my son.  As far as the weight loss my son drinks 3 supplements a day.  I buy them at walmart.  You also have a teenager now remember.  The moods are probably because of the changes that are going on.  Go to the doctor and I am sure they will tell you this too.  Good luck to you and I feel for you.  Really.    CherylFor the short period that I was on concerta, I definitely believe that the end effect of the drug happened very quickly and left me with a very "down" feeling where I felt neither good nor bad; a very "blah" and sad state to be in. For me this down-time lasted usually about 2 or 3 hours, so that was such a crappy state I decided to switch to adderall xr, and then finally to adderall generic because adderall xr gave me headaches and nausea. My advice is to try a different drug; for the people I konw taking adderall and myself, the drug has a much slower and constant down-time. my son is 11 and on concerta, he would get violent when the meds were wearing off.  he lied also, but his weren't as elaborate.  he has been put on tenex along with the concert and it has helped him so much with his mood swings.  he's been on it for about a month now and this has been the best month ever.I just got taken off concerta, I'm 17 and a junior and Concerta made me lose all impulse control, which sounds like what you're talking about, and I would become paranoid that someone would be mad at me or criticize me. I would also come up with some strange stories without thinking much about it, and when I did start to think about it I'd worry about being in trouble and make up more and more stuff. Sadly the only way I found, other than not taking concerta, to stop myself from doing some of these things, and reduce all negative side effects in reality, was to smoke marijuana. Obviously that is not what you want your child to do, but without impulse control it's something to keep in mind, she'll fall to peer pressure in seconds on Concerta. Take her off of it asap. I'm not aware of a good alternative other than adderall which is great for me, but I can tell you Concerta is bad news in this case.