Greetings,

Anyone know if there is a difference in the two? In Belgium I was taking 5mgs of Rilatin every 4 hours or so (2x day, depending on amounts of studying I had), and that seemed to be the perfect amount. I recently came back to the US and was prescribed American Ritalin. However, after 4 hours and two 5mg pills I'm feeling only half-focused. Anyone have any input? I'm thinking the US companies make them weaker so the patient has to buy more of the product...and more sold product = more money!

Sometimes, it may depend on the manufacturer of the generic...however, no, Methylphenidate is Methylphenidate, and the effects of them will be the same. There is no grand conspiracy for pharmaceutical companies to make more money by making patients need more drug.

I don't know...I wouldn't put it past the pharmisuetical companies...lol

I haven't taken generics...the Rilatin is just how they market Ritalin in Francophone countires. But they are apparently totally differnent. No wonder my Doc thought 5mg was low, and no wonder I read of people taking 50+mg a day. If you took 50mg of the Rilatin, you would undoubtedly suffer a heart attack!

I take 50MG of ritalin all the time.

Yes, but you don't take 50mg of Rilatin (European Ritalin). Based on the amounts I've take over the last few days, US Ritalin is 1/2 as strong as its European counterpart. I don't think anyone out there besides myself has experience with the two, so I guess this is a dead post.

Ritalin is the brand name for the Novartis product which is sold world-wide. It's the same strength everywhere, 5MG is 5MG. Maybe you built up a tolerance or maybe you were getting a generic brand who tweaked the formula on purpose.

Andocrates-
In theory they should be the same thing, but I'm telling you they aren't. I took 5mgs of Novartis' RILatin on Tueday and was fine, but the 5mgs of Novartis' RITalin I took on Wed did nothing. I eneded up taking 20mgs over 6 hours in order to get some results. I don't think I built up a tolerance in one day.

Jet LAG? Just a thought.

Maybe you just had a bad batch of the US stuff.

I hate it that I cannot just let these questions that intrigue me GO.
Searched online could find nothing
finally called my local pharmacy, druggist (Swedish native) says all drugs made by the same mfg are the same dosage all over the world.

Recommends taking your meds back to pharmacy asap.

ok and so that I leave you all with a chuckle:

My grandfather is hard of hearing. He needs to read lips. I don’t mind him reading lips, but he uses one of those yellow highlighters

I bought a box of animal crackers and it said on it "Do not eat if seal is broken." So I opened up the box, and sure enough...

ok not funny sorry:(

Charlie,

You are #1...thanks for checking that out. I will call the pharmacy tomorrow to see if their 'stash' has expired or something.

Including 18 months in Dublin, where I worked as a waiter and bartender. I would take one Ritalin at the beginning of my shift and I was able to remained focused until the end of my shift at 1 a.m.
When I moved back to the States, I realized the effects would wear off sooner, forcing me to take another dose after three or four hours.
Maybe it's the tolerance I built up to it, but that is my experience.

A mg of methylphenidate is a mg of methylphenidate no matter which side of the "pond" you purchase it from. Honestly, no consipiricy. I know this whole generics vs brand name stuff has been beaten to death in these forums, but what people preceive often has little to do with what really "is" - there is going to be more variation in the kind of "day" you have - good or bad - than there will be in the dosage or effectiveness of one brand of pill vs the next. The whole issue has more to do with "attribution error" than pharmacology.

I have never heard of Rilatin (odd choice of name for a generic!) are you sure it's a generic and not just a typo? The "European Ritalin" is the original BTW, you may just have a new batch that uses slightly different fillers?

In any case additional ingredients can influence the absorption of the medication, many people either have better or worse results from the generic, and depending on how old one of the batches is, even branded can have a difference (ex. if one was exposed to heat etc.).

OK,
To set the record straight!

Rilatin is not a generic. It is just what Ritalin is marketed as in French-speaking countries...saying RIL-A-TIN is a lot easier for French speakers than RIT-A-LIN. So they are the same thing, only with a slightly different name. Yes, 5mgs *should* be 5mgs should be 5mgs, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Since I had taken the RILatin for months, and the effects were consistent, I doubt the problem lies there. It is more likely that my current RITalin RX is part of a 'weaker' batch. Automated drug processing plants are pretty damn consistent, but they aren't perfect. So I'll ride the last of this prescription out, popping these weak little 5mg tabs every 2 hours or so, until I get a new one. But if the 5mgs are again 'not enough', I think my case for the two being somehow different will be pretty strong. So until then, I'll let this one rest. Thanks to everyone for their input.

I just noticed you mentioned 5 mg pills - the *original* (and only ones you can get in the UK as "Ritalin" by Ciba) are 10mg tablets and I am pretty sure I have heard before of people complaining that different dosages (as they are available in the US for example) are not as effective or more effective than the 10mg pills.

The 5mg tablets probably have different fillers, binding agents and colourants in them - in addition, as different countries allow different ingredients/fillers/colourants, it is possible that this - rather than any difference in the MPH - could cause these problems you're experiencing.

I don't know.

Well, the Ritalin I got here (Hong Kong) is definitively from Switzerland-- on the blister pack there are many names: Ritalin-Ritaline-Ritalina-- but no Rilatin.

methylphenidate - generic version
Ritalin - Brand version
Difference, taken generic only in 10mgs and take ritalin la 40. However, I don't know why but when I buy the generic 10mg from walmaart I feel deperessed sort of after it wears off but when I buy it from my other pharmacy, it doesen't have that depressing effect and it seems the suppliers are the same-geneva(subsidary of novartis)
my two cents worth

I would not put it past the pharmasuticles here either. its all about money in this country