Recently my 11yr old son started a medication called concerta, I stopped the medication because he had bad side affects that weren't good, such as bad itching, easily agitated. Whenever we had a conversation it didn't make sense. My son seemed to be getting worse with the medication he was only taking a 18mg tablet. I know that any medication he takes, there will be side affects, but this medication was the worse. Could anybody tell me if there's a better medication?
Hi Tmcoopcb, did you tell his doctor about his reaction? As well, can you get a second opinion?
I was on concerta too...made me soooooo agitated i got really bad rage outbursts. Ritalin didnt have an effect on me. Try Stratera. It takes a bit longer to kick in and they say its not as effective. But i find it works really well. I have adult adhd and it's really made a difference to me.
Everything works different for everyone. My grandson at age 4 was put on Adderall it seemed to work great, but now at age 7 I was not happy with his weight and thought lets change the med and he would gain a few pounds. The doctor put him on Concerta for a month and it did not work at all. A month later we took him back to the doctor and the little guy had gained 5 lbs in one month. Normally he would gain maybe 5 lbs in six to eight months. My grandson told the doctor he did not like the medicine because he could not pay attention. So now for this month we are trying Methylphenidate (Ritalin) .My grandson is upset over all this and says he does not feel normal and wants the Adderall back.
I take Concerta and it works well for me. My son who is five years old started with 18 mgs. of Concerta and he had similar reactions to your son. He now takes 10 mgs of Ritalin XR (Extended Release). His attention and impulse control ar much improved. He also does not have the severe side effects.
Ritalin and Concerta are both methalphynidate (a stimulant). Concerta is designed to last about 8 to 12 hours while Ritalin XR is suppose to last 6-12 hours. My point is that do not give up because Concerta has too many side effects. There are other medications that are used to treat the symptoms of ADHD. Finding the right medication, at the right dosage varies from individual to individual.. So don't give up!
I wish you and your son well.
Sadly, different drugs have different effects on everyone... Like everyone else mentioned, there isn't generally any one answer. His age may play a factor, but I would absolutely go to his psychiatrist as soon as possible and talk about side effects. There are many options now-a-days for these types of drugs and your son shouldn't have his life/mood changed in such a drastic way. Personally, my boyfriend was on Adderal (spelled wrong, sorry!) for almost ten years of his childhood. It made him depressed, feel like a zombie, never want to eat, and made him very skinny until he went off of it. His primary care physician prescribed it and his parents never seemed to care about his negative side effects. The worst part, I think, was within a few years of being off of the drug, he gained 100 pounds because he had normal hunger but had no idea how to monitor his food intake after all the years of never even feeling hunger. He is now on Strattera and does much, much better with it. It has been making him lose some weight, but none of the other negative side effects luckily. For me, I am on Concerta (generic version) and I luckily haven't had any of the negative side effects you talked about. I take 54mg a day for chronic fatigue and poor concentration (not full-on ADHD). I have had a decreased appetite and lost a little bit of weight, but no mood differences other than having much more energy! Anyways, back to you! Please take him to his psychiatrist! Let the doctor know that the side effects are negatively impacting your son too much, and you would like to try a different medication for him. If the doctor seems to react in a way that doesn't seem right to you, get a second opinion. Now that I have personally seen a psychiatrist, I know that it is possible for them to be flexible and extremely helpful. Good luck!
My son is doing fairly well on concerta 54mg. Only concern is weight loss, but Dr. told me take him off on weekends and holidays. He's not perfect, but better. I've heard that these drugs may work for a while and then you need to try something else because it stops working. He was diagnosed 7 years ago and we have managed until now. He is now wanting to be on the med and understands a lot of what is going on with him.
My son is 10 and has been on 72mg of concerta with other added meds for about 5 years. At first the concert a was working really well but now its wearing off very fast so they've added focallin for the afternoon and intuniv at night. I feel he's on too much medication so I'm taking him to, another docter for a second opinion.
I think it's a good idea to get another opinion. How is his weight on so many meds? My son went from 115 (at 5'5") down to about 108.
Last March, my doc gave me Concerta to help me with my ADHD but, I became so angry that I assaulted someone and was in jail for 3 days. I was on Ritalin after that and it helped alot better. These medications do cause weight loss in alot of people. My doctor had to take me off of those kind of meds because I lost too much weight and I already have anorexia. I do remember though that Ritalin didnt make me so adgitataed though
He continues to gain weight even though he doesn't have an appetite in the afternoon. He just gets very tired when he is paying sports.
Aderall XR works really well for me it's actually the only thing that works but it does have side affects if you look at my conversation "the affects" you will see how out of hand my weight got but other than my weight it was a really nice medication for me to be on I am a 13 tearing female who has really bad ADHD so I don't have many med choices but my 16 year old brother is on stratara a med used for both ADD and ADHD and he doesnt show any side effects that I know about but those are my two reccomondations and yes stratara is ok for younger kids my brother has been on it since he was like 7 so it must work for him hoped this helped
From Autism and Learning Disorders to ADHD