For me and McWeedy (when he takes it), Focalin is great. Adderall was horrible, made us both cranky and short-tempered. Ritalin is good, but hard on the stomach and has a short effective time (we had to take 3-4 doses a day, about 3 hours apart). Ritalin LA works great, but is very expensive.
As I understand it, Focalin IS Ritalin, sort of. The docs told me that Ritalin has two active ingredients: one that provides 80% of the benefits and 20% of the side effects, and the other ingredient that provides only 20% of the benefit but has 80% of the side-effects. Focalin is Dexmethylphenidate, i.e. Ritalin without the second ingredient.
My doctor said that even though what's left is only 80% as "effective", it actually works better because (a) people take it more regularly because of the significantly lower side effects, and (b) the lack of side effects seems to "help" with the overall effectiveness.
On top of that, my pharmacist said that Focalin work like a "Pro(?)" drug, meaning that while it's not technically a "long-acting" drug, what your body breaks it down into is also effective for ADD, so it has an overall longer "effective time" per dose. And best of all, it just came out in generic form!
I can't say enough good things about the drug. But keep in mind that that's just me and mine. Everybody reacts differently to psychoactive medications, and one person's miracle is another person's nightmare. But, for us, Focalin is the former, not the latter.
Good luck with the medication. I hope it works for you, and be sure to ask for the generic by it's name (dexmethylphenidate). Pharmacies will sometimes tell you there ISN'T a generic, but it's there, it's cheap, and it works just as well as the brand name.
Hope that helps.
Mikey