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Post by camismom on Jun 21, 2005 11:38:16 GMT -5
Cami had her 6 month ADHD checkup last Friday. After talking to her doc, we decided to try her on Concerta. I may be wrong (tell me if I am) but it seems I have read somewhere that Concerta releases differently than Ritalin LA. With the Ritalin there is a initial "jolt" of medicine with the most being released in the a.m. then leveling off to an even amount through the rest of the day. I think I read that Concerta does it a bit differently, with an uphill climb then descend. He drew a line and showed that the med is SUPPOSED to start it's descend towards the end of the child's day. Cami's first two periods will be classes she doesn't need that much concentration on so we decided to give the Concerta a try. She started it today for her swim practice.
Now, for a question. She was taking 60 mgs. of Ritalin LA and he put her on 54 mgs of Concerta. Will it matter that it is a lower dose?
Any input on Concerta will be greatly appreciated.
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Post by kurs10b on Jun 21, 2005 12:26:35 GMT -5
54mgs of concerta is one of the higer doses. They go from 18, 36, 54. I think that they will sometimes combine 2 doses to make an even higher one, but those are the basics. Try it and see if it works.
Concerta was explained to me once by a psyc. She said that it releases a constant dose of the medication for 12 hours. She was surprised when I told her that 54mg of the stuff would be worn off of my 8 year old by 2. He doesnt take it until 8am usually.
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Post by AnneM on Jun 21, 2005 12:30:12 GMT -5
 Christy ... in ME you have a real "Concerta fan" ... so my opinion may well be biased !! ... I cannot speak for Ritalin XR but I CAN speak for straight Ritalin -vs- Concerta ... Sam was on Ritalin to start with and it NEVER worked for him ... if that was all that was available today we would have given up years ago ... but Concerta was a WHOLE different ball-game and sooooo much nicer and more successful ... On Ritalin we saw some "nasty" rebounds ... on Concerta I never witnessed one EVER ... IMHO it was a much, much "gentler" reaction .... GOOD LUCK ... Keep us posted!! 
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Post by camismom on Jun 21, 2005 13:37:15 GMT -5
Christy ... in ME you have a real "Concerta fan" ... so my opinion may well be biased !! ... I cannot speak for Ritalin XR but I CAN speak for straight Ritalin -vs- Concerta ... Sam was on Ritalin to start with and it NEVER worked for him ... if that was all that was available today we would have given up years ago ... but Concerta was a WHOLE different ball-game and sooooo much nicer and more successful ... On Ritalin we saw some "nasty" rebounds ... on Concerta I never witnessed one EVER ... IMHO it was a much, much "gentler" reaction .... GOOD LUCK ... Keep us posted!! That's good to hear!! Esp. about the rebounds. She took it today, so we'll see tonight. My friend Traci's dd is on Concerta and has been for years.... she sings its praises too. Hope I can join the choir!! lol |
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Post by kstquilter on Jun 21, 2005 14:03:35 GMT -5
christy,
i hope you can join the choir too but i can't. ritalin worked much better than concerta ever did for brittany.
what all of you have described has been my basic understanding of the difference in ritalin and concerta. it's all ritalin, just a different way of it being distributed.
isn't it amazing how the same drug, can work so differently for each of our kids.
good luck.
karen
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Post by Linda on Jun 21, 2005 15:15:13 GMT -5
Christy ... in ME you have a real "Concerta fan" ... so my opinion may well be biased !! ... I cannot speak for Ritalin XR but I CAN speak for straight Ritalin -vs- Concerta ... Sam was on Ritalin to start with and it NEVER worked for him ... if that was all that was available today we would have given up years ago ... but Concerta was a WHOLE different ball-game and sooooo much nicer and more successful ... On Ritalin we saw some "nasty" rebounds ... on Concerta I never witnessed one EVER ... IMHO it was a much, much "gentler" reaction .... GOOD LUCK ... Keep us posted!! Same here...no rebounds and the appetite isn't nearly as effected as the ritalin. |
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mothercat
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Post by mothercat on Jun 21, 2005 16:24:29 GMT -5
Christy ... in ME you have a real "Concerta fan" ... so my opinion may well be biased !! ... I cannot speak for Ritalin XR but I CAN speak for straight Ritalin -vs- Concerta ... Sam was on Ritalin to start with and it NEVER worked for him ... if that was all that was available today we would have given up years ago ... but Concerta was a WHOLE different ball-game and sooooo much nicer and more successful ... On Ritalin we saw some "nasty" rebounds ... on Concerta I never witnessed one EVER ... IMHO it was a much, much "gentler" reaction .... GOOD LUCK ... Keep us posted!! Same here Jared is on Concerta during the school year (oh how I miss the drug) and has much better results than he did on Rit...He usually takes it around 7:30 (just before school) and it wears off by 2:30..(jr high P.E. is last hour for boys so it doesn't matter much) then if he has a prob with homework we get a small rit kicker of 5 or 10 depending on how big the prob is...but I am gonna check into the focilin someone suggested in a post ..  |
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sportsmom
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Post by sportsmom on Jun 21, 2005 20:35:53 GMT -5
Christy if I had to chose for Levi I would put him back on concerta. The reason we took him off was because he had migraine headaces. But when he was on concerta I feel he had better concentration and his mood was more stable. I like the strattera but I don't like not being able to give him a med break because it has to be built up in his system~~~if I can't give him a break how will we ever know if he can go without meds??? Good luck to you and Cami
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Post by finnmom on Jun 22, 2005 10:48:11 GMT -5
Christy, good luck Sami is on concerta too, and we´ve been very pleased with it. He started with 18 and is now on 36 ( I think they wont even go any higher in here, very cautios about these med´s)18 worked nicely when he was younger, 36 does the same job now when he´s got bigger. I`ve got the image that concerta is a depot-tablet, wich mean´s it keep´s the med level same through ca.8 hour´s. We had no bad side effect´s eather, no really meaningfull effect on eating etc.... But as you´ve heard, it does not work for all.... Keeping my thump´s up |
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Post by camismom on Jun 22, 2005 12:57:34 GMT -5
The way Cami's doctor described the meds to me is like this:
Ritalin LA is little "beads" inside a capsule. Some are designed to "kick in" and start working immedialtely, which gives the initial kick I mentioned. The others are designed to sit in waiting for a while and later in the day when their time comes, they activate, a little at a time.
Concerta is a capsule with two pin holes at each end. The medicine inside is then slowly "pushed out" of these pin holes at a steady rate throughout the course of the day. This causing the same amount being released throughout the day.... which of course causes the "evenness" in the focus... no highs or lows.
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mothercat
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With a little luck and a lot of Gods help anything is possible!
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Post by mothercat on Jun 22, 2005 21:42:16 GMT -5
Jareds concerta is a caplet...solid...not in a capsule..  |
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Post by JulieinSC on Jun 23, 2005 6:03:39 GMT -5
Here's the website that explains the Concerta delivery system: www.concerta.net/html/concerta/difference/how.jsp?Unfortunately, Concerta's delivery system didn't work for my son and we switched to Metadate CD. Because we had extra Concerta's, I dissolved one in water and found that there was a plastic-like shell that goes around the med! |
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Post by camismom on Jun 23, 2005 10:32:16 GMT -5
Thanks for that link Julie! I copied this info from it: Part of the CONCERTA tablet dissolves right after you swallow it in the morning, giving you an initial dose of methylphenidate. The medication is contained within a nonabsorbable shell that releases the medication at a controlled rate. That is exactly the way Cami's doc described it. He even said that shell could be seen again if you know what I mean.   |
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mothercat
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With a little luck and a lot of Gods help anything is possible!
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Post by mothercat on Jun 23, 2005 11:36:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the web site....So if I get this right it is like released slowly after an initial release of part ofit...so if Jared has all his easy classes in the afternoon and hard classes in the morning it works better..but what about if it is the other way around??should we change the time it is given?
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Post by finnmom on Jun 23, 2005 15:41:28 GMT -5
Part of the CONCERTA tablet dissolves right after you swallow it in the morning, giving you an initial dose of methylphenidate. The medication is contained within a nonabsorbable shell that releases the medication at a controlled rate. ( Yep, that´s what I ment to say, just couldn´t find the word´s I´ve been really happy with concerta, as happy as you can be giving med´s to your kid anyhow, I havent even noticed the moment when there is no more med in his system, no significant rebound´s, eating little less and mayby some difficulties to get sleep at the first day´s on med´s, but nothing bad. I hope this work´s for you Christy |
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