Hey guys, I'm curious because my dose only seems to last for 4-5 hours but when its working its great.

Is there anyone out there that takes a second dose a few hours after the first?

I'm going to be talking to my doctor about it but I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with this.

thx

I went to my doctor today and he gave me 2x 27mg a day for starters.

I have, but to increase the dosage, not to extend the effect. Concerta is supposed to release evenly over 12 hours, so taking a second one after five hours would double your dossage for the next 7 hours (until the first one has worn off).

Hey guys, I'm curious because my dose only seems to last for 4-5 hours but when its working its great.

Is there anyone out there that takes a second dose a few hours after the first?

I'm going to be talking to my doctor about it but I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with this.

thx


How does ur dosage only last for 4-5 hours? What did your doctor tell you about this? I'm curious bc i take it too and it lasts for about 10 or 11 hours. For some people it last 12-14, and others its only 7-8, but 4-5 is wayy too short.
Do you take it with food that contains citric acid or any other acid?

I think that there could be two reason to this interesting issue.

1 - first and most likely, it could be that since your new to this medication, you don't know how its supposed to "feel" and like most people, you maybe believe that its no longer active once that feeling of intense focus, energy, or slight "high" wears off. This is far from being true.
I had a similar issue when i began stimulants. Basically, once your body starts adjusting to the medication and responding to its presence, the "drugs effects" begin to wear off because the mind/body reconginzes and reacts to the presence of a poision/drug, it breaks it down and tries get rid of it as quick as possible. This is the part where the "high" or other side effects wear off. However, some other good effects aren't recongized by the body as a drug/poison so it ignores them and they stay acting until they are naturally depleted.
So in other words, once the noticable "feelings" wear off, it doesn't mean that its not working anymore. With instant acting ritalin a person would feel very slightly "high" for the first half hour then just more focused thereafter.
So to see if this is the case with you, try to do something once you think it wore off, that requires focus and that you normally wouldn't be able to do it easily, like reading a book or something. Sometimes its hard to notice the true effects.

2 - Second thing i think, although not as likely as the first, maybe your metabolism is to quick and burns through the medication very fast. Citric acids also cause meds to break down quicker.


Anyways, the best thing is to talk to the doctor and try different medications. Personally, i think ur going through way i went as i described above, but also could just simply be that concerta isn't the right med for you. Good luck. :)

On my first 2 weeks on Concerta, I was only at 18 mg, I did notice too that it seems to last only 4 to 5 hours. In the morning I was doing really well, focus and all. In the afternoon, it was kind of a rebound effect, feeling somewhat confused. Once I increased the dose at my doctor advise, to 36 mg, the good effect start to last for a good 10 hours or more. I now tend to forget that I took it, no side effects.

I also don't notice when the effect stop, it is a really slow "landing". Talk to you doctor.

With Concerta or any other stimulant medication you won't get the optimal duration of effectiveness until you get the correct dosage. This is evident when you only get a few hours of benefit on a medication like Concerta. Keep going up until you get good benefits. If you get to the point of feeling too zoned or 'stoned' then you've gone too far.

Concerta is about to be officially approved for adults any day now for doses up to 108mg day.

Here is a good link you might want to read:

http://www.corepsychblog.com/2008/01/tips-on-medicat.html

J

well, right now I'm on a trial of vyvanse, but I'm about to go right back to concerta. My regular dose is 2 54 mg pills in the morning and it lasted for me at least 8 hours

I'm on 2x36mg right now it it keeps me going anywhere from 10 to 14 hours

Alright. If you metabolize concerta too fast there is a way to tell. Seems kind of gross but if you look in your stools you might see a 1/2 of a concerta pill. That's your answer. These pills were built to pump out ritalin every couple hours.

So let's says your on 18mg but it only lasts for 6 hours. So you only get 9mg of ritalin.

Another to worry about is that Concerta after it goes into your stomach it goes to the liver. If you have a good liver that can metabolize drugs quickly before it enters the rest of the circulatory system there might not be much concerta left.

Do you feel the drug working for those 4 hours? Do you feel that the drug is stonger when you first take it and then tapers off? Or is it a smooth ride the whole 4-5 hours?

so im curious..i started out on 18mg of concerta, no real difference or anything..then i went to 36mg and i still havent noticed anything like "being focused" at all..i finally just got bumped to taking two 36mg of concerta day so we will see how this goes.. im just wonderin what effects you guys are getting from this so called "better" focus cause im sure as hell not getting any of it.

im new to the med and mine only lasts 5-6 hours, im going to talk to my doctor about this..

although im new to the medication, after 5 hours
-i begin to yawn like crazy
-sounds begin to irritate me
-no more motivation/concentration to do school work

well i have been on two aday concerta for like two weeks..i really haven't noticed anything at all..its same old same old..not really focused or motivation to do something..might be going back to adderall

I used to take 18 and 36 when I was increasing my dose. When switched to 54 and once I took another 36 one. I could hyperconcentrate, it was pretty cool, but after 8 hours (what it lasts for me) I felt tired-hyperactive (yeah, energy overcharges and then a sudden drop in energy level), druged, well, not nice. When I'm in exams sometimes I take more than 1 a day but after the effect was worn out; 4 days on concerta concecutive aren't that bad.