Well I finally made the switch from 20mg of Ritalin SR to Concerta. My doctor gave my 30 36mg (or are they 34mg, either way) and 30 18mg to experiment with.

I do have a question that is rather important. Seeing as how it's exam time and I have an exam on Wednesday the 23rd, I am really afraid that the Concerta will not last as long as I need it to. I need to study all day, but if I take it early in the morning it's going to wear off around dinner time.

Would it be smart to take a 36mg when I wakeup, and then a 18 mg 4 hours later? I just want to be sure I can stay up rather late, this macroeconomics exam is worth 40% of my mark.

Thanks!

Hi! Hope it'll work for you! I know that I can't take my concerta too late, or it'll bother me with going to bed. When I take it around 10 am, it keeps me sharp till about 9 pm. I wouldn't take two seperate doses of concerta, because then it's going to work funny, I think, because it releases the active part of it every few hours.

I took 54mg at 11:30 this morning. At about 12:30 I felt amazing, great clarity, concentration and I was very calm.

Right now it's almost 6:00 PM and I feel exhausted. I feel rather light headed, a bit dizzy and my eyes can barely stay open. Is this common? I assumed I would be good to go until about 9:00 tonight (9-10 hours).

its only my second day on concerta but tonight when i was doing yoga i felt extremely weak and my muscles felt like i'd just ran a marathon. i don't know what that's about but i didn't like not feeling strong like i normally do.

Yup it's very strange. About 10 minutes after I made that post I felt quite a bit better. I felt a new surge of concentration and energy and i've been able to study well since. I'm only on hour 9 though, im not looking forward to crashing. I remember when I first started my Ritalin SR I hated the crash but I got used to it.

Hi all,

I've been taking Methylphenidate for several weeks, 10 mg twice a day. I found rebound effect is pretty hard to manage so I saw my psychiatrist and I suggested him to switch my meds Concerta. He agreed by saying to me « To say simply, you know more about the meds than me ! » ... sweet :)

He then showed me his big Book of Meds and how the pill works ; 22% of the methylphenidate in the tablet is released within an hour and the remaining is slowly liberated for a ~ 12-hour effectiveness, all with the osmotic pump magic. After 24 hours the amount of meds in the body is infinitesimal.

In my opinion it really helps to know how the meds work ! To all of of you who are taking Concerta I hope this tiny bit of info will help you deal with it.

Today's my first day with Concerta 36 mg. In three weeks I have another appointment to evaluate how it goes.

timmtc, 36 + 18 may help your cause as long as rebound effect is not too hard to deal with. However, when your experiment ends, if you consider 36 + 18 is enough, may I suggest you try 54 mg ? rebound effect might be easier to manage.

Hope this helps...

I also have a question about dosing...

Next week, I have an exam from 5-6:30, then 6:30-10:15. How should I take my 18mg Concerta such that I do not "rebound" during exams. I notice I start to make careless mistakes at night as I get exhausted from the stimulant.