Hi All,

It's been a while since I've posted. We saw a pediatrician and he put my son on Concerta. After 5 days he threw some terrible fits and was sleep deprived from the meds. Went back to the doctor and he said that he doesn't need the meds (that's why he reacted that way) and we are dealing with more of an ODD issue than ADHD. He said he is only borderline ADD. Then we went to see a child psychiatrist yesterday. She and the pediatrician are collegues. She said that he is most certainly ADD and most certainly needs to be on meds. Today he took his first dose of Ritalin slow release. She said that the ritalin tends to leave the system faster than concerta and that's why she doesn't like to prescribe the concerta to children. My husband and I are confused by the conflicting opinions. I'm assuming we should listen to the psychiatrist over the pediatrician? If anyone has any thoughts on this issue I'd love to hear them.

AndreaM

There was a statement that went something like, if the stimulants help with the ADHD symptoms then that is a sign that you have ADHD. That statement has been refuted, because some meds work on some kids and not on others. Anyway, the point is, you do not diagnose ADHD based on a childs reaction to medication. You diagnose based on the symptoms. Period.

Did Concerta help with your son's symptoms during the 5 days?

We didn't really notice much of a difference when he was on the Concerta. But, he also wasn't in any situations where he would have to sit, focus, concentrate, etc. Now that he's in school it will be easier to tell if the Ritalin is working. He took his first dose yesterday and everything went fine at night putting him to bed. Yippie! I didn't see him after school as I was working but my husband said he seemed like himself "on a good day". :) We'll see how it goes over the next few days. We have the added problem of him having poison ivy so he is frustrated over that but it's good to see if there are any changes in how he deals with that frustration.

I agree that we have to be open to trying a different med. It's just frustrating when 2 speciallists are telling you different things. I guess the child psychiatrist would be the one to listen to first for these kinds of issues since they are specialized in dealing with kids brains.

Andrea M

The way that the slow release drugs medicine is released is very interesting. All of the drug manufactureres have a little chart that shows the concentration of the med in the blood stream over time. Short acting drugs just increase for a while, peak and then decline. Some long acting meds have a kind of "double hump" of concentration. Some meds have a long smooth peak and then drop off.

If you go to the manufacturers web sites find the "Physicians Prescription Guidelines". It is usually a PDF document. It has some big words, but is actually very readable. It will really help you understand how the drug works in your child. The more you know....

I also like this overview on meds;

http://www.addwarehouse.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/article3.htm

I also like this description of ADHD on wikipedia, near the bottom there is a good summary on meds;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhd