A week before running out of meds I called my doctors office to request a new perscription be sent to the pharmacy by my house. To make a long story short, the meds didn't get filled until the last day of school, by that time I had lost all cognitive ability and ended up requesting an incomplete grade. The strange this is that because my main doctor was on vacation, the 'script was written be another doctor, who incidentally changed the meds. I was originally on 15mg twice a day of ritalin short acting. The new perscription is for methylin er, 10 mg three times a day. Is this a proper form of medication? What I mean is, I've never heard of an extended release drug being taken three times per day.

As far as I can tell, it's just a generic or other brand name form of "ritalin" and not necessarily long-acting. However, one can take the long acting medications split during the day, too. If it is a long acting I would just make sure that the last dose wasn't too late in the afternoon.

Maybe others will have more info for you, though.

Kim

Ya its the long acting version, Methylin ER...

Conventional wisdom (which may be wrong) is that the ER forms do not typically last 6-8 hours, apparently more commonly 5-6. Your mileage may indeed vary. If you are taking it every 4 hours or so, you can expect serum levels of methylphenidate to be rising throughout the main part of the day. This is a good thing, and in fact the entire concept of Concerta's methylphenidate delivery system, i.e. increasing concentration.

"Methylin ER has an eight-hour duration of action, although behavioral efficacy is assessed most accurately on an individual patient basis." http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1d1cca.htm ;)

How does the ER version work for you? I imagine the 3 times a day instructions are an error - which doctors do make! He probably didn't mean to give you the ER version. I guess you found out that a doctor can't phone in prescriptions for stimulants (at least they can't where I live) - which reminds me to make a doctors appointment now, in case my doctor is on vacation or really busy.