Comments\advice needed regarding ADHD medicines

[tryinghard]

Hi,

My son had been diagnosed with ADHD, he is 12 years old. He was originally diagnosed at age 6. We originally tried many different medication but he did not tolerate them very well. He has been on Metadate 30mg for the last five years. He has tolerated it well, but I am not really sure it has worked very well.

Because of recent behavioral issues at home and school, in addition to poor school performance, the doctor is considering putting him on the new Concertta patch.

Could any of you with experience regarding this medicine please give me your feedback. I understand that each child reacts differently, but I would like to hear how it worked or did not work for your child. Thank you

 

[DDD]

Concerta has been extremely helpful for our boys. Neither has ever been on the patch but the older boy took 64 mgs in the morning and was able to function satisfactorily while the younger (skinnier) teen takes 72 mgs each morning. Neither has had any negative side effects.

It is, of course, important to remember that not only does each child react individually but also (sad to say..lol) your son is entering preteen years. Yikes! DDD

 

[gcvmom]

Both my difficult child's use the Daytrana patch (methylphenidate -- same as Concerta) with very good response. We actually started it for difficult child 1 because he has scar tissue in his small intestine and the Concerta capsule is contraindicated for people like him because it does not dissolve completely and he would risk an obstruction. He did so well on the patch that we switched difficult child 2 because at the time we needed a delivery method that could be tweaked easier than the pills since he was starting to react strangely to the stims (turns out it was a mood disorder developing).

Although the packaging says to NOT cut the patch, we do it routinely to adjust how much medications difficult child gets, especially on the weekends. I've had absolutely no problems with doing this.