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.

If you go the Concerta site you can get full prescribing info as well as get into the physicians area. Lots of good info.

http://www.concerta.net/concerta/adult/adult-index.html

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).

Sounds like you're either adjusting to an increase or you ODed and your body is adjusting as it's wearing off.

You said that you were taking 20 mg Ritalin SR.

36 mg of Concerta contains 30 mg of Ritalin, but typically a little bit less is absorbed (like 27.5). Concerta is spread over 10 hours, whereas Ritalin SR is 6-8 hours.

So in your case 36 mg would be a fairly equal replacement for your 20 mg SR in terms of strength, but longer duration.

With 54 mg, you're giving your body 50% more Methylphenidate with a 2-4 hour longer duration.

I wouldn't get too concerned, because it just may be your body adjusting. The euphoria and the crash are indicative of this. It may be your ideal dose, but I'm betting your doctor didn't want you to take both.

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.

Check out Figure 1 on page 5 to see how much is in your system versus time.

http://www.concerta.net/concerta/assets/Prescribing_Info-short.pdf#zoom=56

I think you'd be fine, but if it's really important I would take the 18 mg around noon to 1 pm for that first exam and plan on staying up a little late that night. Is the 6:30-10:15 am? In that case, you may then just take the medicine normally and rely on a little bit of caffeine. But in my experience, caffeine and concerta don't mix well. Significant amounts of caffeine with my concerta makes me dizzy, so I stopped consuming coffee, but I'll drink tea occassionally.