Hi all!

Well, i've been almos 2 months on concerta now. My doctor used (and still is, I think) a strange method to make a diagnosis.

The thing is: I'll put you on concerta, and see what happens :S If I don't have ADHD I'll only feel nervous, and if I had, my symptoms will begin to get better, or I'll not feel anything at all whit the smaller doses.

I began with 18 mg. the two first weeks. I didn't feel almost anything. Only a strange buzzing sensation in my head, a very mild occasional nausea, and very mild headaches too. As for the symptoms, it seemed to work a very little bit in impulsivity and impatience. That was all. No. I'm thinking that wasn't all. I just remembered that I had the almost constant need to clear my throat every few minutes LOL

On my second appointment, we decided to up my dose to 36 mg. Each bottle of concerta has 30 pills, so I still had 16 pills left in the bottle. Because it's an expensive med, my doctor made me a receipt for the 36 Mg. pills, but I could take two 18 mg. pills from the first bottle, and then one of 36 Mg. when I was done with the first bottle.

That was strange. Theorically, taking two 18 Mg. or one 36 Mg. pills may not be a difference. When I doubled the dose happened what I imagined. The buzzing in my head was increased to the point of being a bit annoying at times (though I thought it may be the cup of coffee I drink shortly after take the meds, because I almost don't feel the buzzing on weekends, when I don't drink coffee. But I sleep more hours on weekends, and therefore I take the meds several hours later, so who knows...), the need of clearing my throat stayed the same. The mild nausea at times stayed the same, and the headaches, too.Anyway, it seemed to work a lot better with hiperactivity and daydreaming and that kind of stuff. Anyway, no improvement in focus and concentration.

The third stage was one 36 Mg pill. And that was the strange thing I said before. No head buzzing, no nausea, no throat clearing, and the same effects on hiperactivity / daydreaming. And is exactly the same dose. And I haven't changed my habits. Strange.

I'd like to note that all the "side effects" I described here were very, very mild, and don't interfered on normal functioning, although in some moment some of them were a very, very, very little annoying.

So, next tuesday I have to go to see the doctor. I don't know if I may try with 54 Mg and see how it goes. Concerta for me seems to work like a charm with hiperactivity, but it have no effect on focus. So I don't know...

Hey, I just noticed something that may relate to me being on meds. Not being english my mother tongue, it was a lot easier for me to write this post. Before starting with meds, writing in english taked me a lot of time, and now I written all this almost straight ahead. Maybe concerta affects to my focus more than I think :o

Could be that you've adjusted to the medication and don't notice the side effects so much now. Or it could be that taking a 36 mg doesn't cause the annoyances that the 16 mg dose did. Might be worth mentioning to your doctor, maybe s/he knows why it's different or has had another patient mention that too.

I only take supplements for my ADHD, and didn't notice right away that my focus was better, but when I ran out and went a week without them THEN I could really tell how much they had been helping me. I ran out again one more time a year to two later and could tell there was enough difference between taking the supplements and not taking the supplements that I haven't run out again since then.

My granddaughter takes Concerta, started at 16 mg and increased to 36 mg. Her daddy was very resistant - one of those people who says ADD is just an excuse for being lazy. But she forgot to take her meds since school got out a week ago, and after spending the weekend with her dad he's the one who reminded her that she hadn't been taking the meds. He really could see the difference between her with meds and without meds. :rolleyes:

Could be that you've adjusted to the medication and don't notice the side effects so much now. Or it could be that taking a 36 mg doesn't cause the annoyances that the 16 mg dose did. Might be worth mentioning to your doctor, maybe s/he knows why it's different or has had another patient mention that too.

I don't think so. I mean. It was from one day to the next. I had taken 2 18 mg. pills one day, and I had the head buzzing and all, one 36 mg. the next day and was and huge difference. Anyway, I saved 2 18 mg pills just in case, so maybe tomorrow I'll take these two instead of th 36 to see what happens. As I said, all that side effects aren't anything terrible after all...

Uhm, There's one more thing I forgot before. (forgot?. Nah. It can't be possible LOL) I hadn't any issues with insomnia. I use to take the meds at 8:30 am and I am able to take a nap a 2 pm without any problem :)

hmm, interesting report indeed, thanks!
thats a bit weird about 2x18mg vs. 1x36mg, still trying to think of a logical explanation...

another thing... maybe the drug helps you focus more than you'd like to belive. when the side-effects i had with ritalin started to fade, i was thinking to myself... is this still working? i dont feel anything! but then i was like "hey wait... you just watched a two hours tv show!" - and that's something i could never do before. i think you just get so used to being on the drug that you dont even feel how it helps you after a while... i dont know though.
one could try by skipping the medication for a day...
i think i would rent two movies of equal length and equal interest to me (description-wise), then do the same routine in two days - sleep 8 hours, get up, eat breakfast, take concerta / ritalin, watch movie one hour later. then repeat the same the day after, WITHOUT taking the drug, and see if my focus is a lot worse... of course, this can be easily influenced if e.g. one movie is much worse than the other, but... hmmm. it should make a difference, anyway.

i think i'll try the concerta today for the first time - my other appointment in the afternoon resolved itself, so i got all day to test it... just have to wait for the first dose of ritalin to wear off totally. i'll take it at 12pm, as i dont think it would have an influence on my sleep... i mean, i INTENTIONALLY take ritalin right before going to bed so i'm able to fall asleep much better - i dont think it'll be different with concerta. i can even sleep on 10mg ritalin when it reaches maximum plasma levels, so... shouldnt be an issue with concerta.

Today I've taken the two 18 mg. that I saved. The head buzz is here again. The rest of the side effects are there too, but with much less intensity. So yeah, it's weird.

The only positive effects I noticed were that I found that I don't feel the need to leave my seat and start pacing around every half an hour, and my mind aren't wandering anymore, if I don't want to. Uh, and as I said, it seems I'm thinking much clearer when I'm writing in english ;)