6 replies to this topic

[AeonFlux]

Hello all,

I am a 40 year old male, and have been taking Concerta (18mg) for about a month. As a child I was diagnosed as 'hyperactive' but my mother did not want me to take medications(as she was kind of a hippie at the time). So, at this later point in my life I elected to see a psychiatrist and be evaluated for adult ADHD.

I lead a fairly healthy lifestyle, with a good diet of berries, fish and whey protein shakes. I am fairly well-educated but did drop out of Grad school about a year ago due to disinterest and a lack of money. I also exercise about 4 times a week, and intense exercise does seem to help my ADHD symptoms.

My observations about Concerta;

1) It works, even at the somewhat low dosage I take. Not much yet in terms of side effects other than a slightly decreased appetite.

2) Sometime I spend too much time on trivial unimportant tasks, which I would have avoided unmedicated.

3) On the days when I take Concerta I develop a strong distaste to alcohol (not that I was a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy a good beer).

4) I also have no interest in TV or entertainment while medicated unless it is some sort of educational program. Also when driving in traffic I feel the need to use my brain, and end up doing basic math problems in my head using the numbers contained on other cars license plates.

5) The next unmedicated day I still feel a bit better than normal. Is the medication still active after 24 hours?


Questions about ADHD treatment;

1) how long will it take before I develop a tolerance to Concerta? I take it about 3-4 times a week, and it still seems to work about the same.

2) If I needed to choose a second medication to alternate with Concerta, which would be the best choice? I am not really interested in Adderall or Dexedrine due to the apparent neurotoxicity. My psychiatrist seems to be really into Strattera and Wellbutrin, but the feedback I have seen for those drugs has been mixed.

3) Are there any supplements that work well in conjunction with Concerta? I do take Gingko, DMAE, and DHA with some modest success, are they ok to take with other ADHD meds?

4) is it okay to exercise while medicated? I do feel like it, but I do not want to put too much strain on the body.

5) Are the generic time-release ritalins really that much different than the 'high-tech' Concerta?


Thanks for the advice!

AeonFlux

[ultranaut]

Questions about ADHD treatment;

1) how long will it take before I develop a tolerance to Concerta? I take it about 3-4 times a week, and it still seems to work about the same.

2) If I needed to choose a second medication to alternate with Concerta, which would be the best choice? I am not really interested in Adderall or Dexedrine due to the apparent neurotoxicity. My psychiatrist seems to be really into Strattera and Wellbutrin, but the feedback I have seen for those drugs has been mixed.

3) Are there any supplements that work well in conjunction with Concerta? I do take Gingko, DMAE, and DHA with some modest success, are they ok to take with other ADHD meds?

4) is it okay to exercise while medicated? I do feel like it, but I do not want to put too much strain on the body.

5) Are the generic time-release ritalins really that much different than the 'high-tech' Concerta?

1) I took it almost every day for a month. I never noticed major tolerance, it definitely felt less potent after the first few times but not majorly so.

2) I've taken Adderall, Wellbutrin, and Straterra.
Adderall is wonderful stuff. I see people mention neurotoxicity, I've yet to see any evidence for that (except from heroic doses). I do think it deserves a lot of respect though, if you don't pay attention it can easily cause problems. It's the most effective thing I've found for ADD.
Wellbutrin is my favorite drug of all time, although I haven't found much benefit from it when it comes to ADD symptoms. It definitely helped me feel motivated though.
Straterra is the worst drug I have ever taken. I was too distracted by the terrible side effects to notice if it helped much. It was the first thing I tried for ADD, I nearly gave up there. Next came Concerta, it worked but it made me feel strange and robotic. After that came Adderall XR, it was great but did not work consistently. Now I'm on Adderall IR, despite supposedly being the same as XR it's actually weaker but it does work more reliably.

3) Don't know, from what I methylphenidate is generally pretty safe to mix with other things (besides other stims of course).

4) I've done some physically exhausting stuff while on Concerta and Adderall. Besides sweating a lot I never noticed anything unusual. I didn't feel like my heart was working harder than it should be or like I couldn't catch my breath. Probably the most dangerous thing I've experienced is that I don't feel tired and so I just keep going and going for hours. You should really consult with a doctor on this though.

5) I never tried any but if Adderall didn't work so well for me I defintiely would of. Concerta is kind of stupid I think. It's basically just an expensive pill with a cheap a drug in it. Worst case the generics suck and you can switch back, best case you are going to save yourself a huge amount of money.

[AeonFlux]

Thanks for the response.

Since Concerta is working well for me at this point I am in no rush to change, but i would like to have a secondary medication in mind. Focalin XR appears to get good reviews from users, I wonder why it is not more commonly used? I know it is similar to concerta (but not exactly the same).

One other thing that has significantly helped my ADD symptoms has been very intense exercise (45 minutes of uphill sprints). But I cannot always find the time for that.

DMAE helps as well.

Has anybody had a good experience with Strattera? I have yet to see a positive response. Why is my psychiatrist so gung-ho on Strattera?

Aeon

[ultranaut]

Has anybody had a good experience with Strattera? I have yet to see a positive response. Why is my psychiatrist so gung-ho on Strattera?

I think I saw one person in a forum somewhere who said it worked for them and that they didn't mind the erectile dysfunction. I've seen lots of reports of people having their doc push it on them, it was the first thing my doc went for. It's being heavily marketed, maybe there is some kind of kickback program going on. I can't think of any medical reason why it should be tried as an ADD treatment when there are already safer and cheaper options available. If all fails, sure then you try the expensive new drug that's brutal on your body.

[Pike]

Hello all,

I am a 40 year old male, and have been taking Concerta (18mg) for about a month. As a child I was diagnosed as 'hyperactive' but my mother did not want me to take medications(as she was kind of a hippie at the time). So, at this later point in my life I elected to see a psychiatrist and be evaluated for adult ADHD.

I lead a fairly healthy lifestyle, with a good diet of berries, fish and whey protein shakes. I am fairly well-educated but did drop out of Grad school about a year ago due to disinterest and a lack of money. I also exercise about 4 times a week, and intense exercise does seem to help my ADHD symptoms.

My observations about Concerta;

1) It works, even at the somewhat low dosage I take. Not much yet in terms of side effects other than a slightly decreased appetite.

2) Sometime I spend too much time on trivial unimportant tasks, which I would have avoided unmedicated.

3) On the days when I take Concerta I develop a strong distaste to alcohol (not that I was a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy a good beer).

4) I also have no interest in TV or entertainment while medicated unless it is some sort of educational program. Also when driving in traffic I feel the need to use my brain, and end up doing basic math problems in my head using the numbers contained on other cars license plates.

5) The next unmedicated day I still feel a bit better than normal. Is the medication still active after 24 hours?


Questions about ADHD treatment;

1) how long will it take before I develop a tolerance to Concerta? I take it about 3-4 times a week, and it still seems to work about the same.

2) If I needed to choose a second medication to alternate with Concerta, which would be the best choice? I am not really interested in Adderall or Dexedrine due to the apparent neurotoxicity. My psychiatrist seems to be really into Strattera and Wellbutrin, but the feedback I have seen for those drugs has been mixed.

3) Are there any supplements that work well in conjunction with Concerta? I do take Gingko, DMAE, and DHA with some modest success, are they ok to take with other ADHD meds?

4) is it okay to exercise while medicated? I do feel like it, but I do not want to put too much strain on the body.

5) Are the generic time-release ritalins really that much different than the 'high-tech' Concerta?


Thanks for the advice!

AeonFlux

1) If you're taking it at your prescribed dose, i seriously doubt that you'll develop much of a tolerance at all any time soon, especially when only taking it 3-4 times a week.

2) Personally tried Adderall, methylphenidate, selegiline, bupropion and modafinil. Adderall is still #1 for ADHD control, but Bupropion (aka Wellbutrin) was my favorite because it didn't give me the stimulant-blues that all other adhd medications have.

3) Not sure if concerta has the same effect on Magnesium levels as Adderall does, but if you wanted to then I imagine some magnesium would be a good addition to any kind of stimulant ==> helps reduce neurotoxicity.

4) Depends... I know that exercising is a no-no on Adderall because of the glutamate rush, but I don't know if Concerta has the same effect. Exercise in general will kick up your glutamate levels. Glutamate is an excitotoxic neurotransmitter, and the combo of the glutamate release from dopamine-acting stimulants + exercising could result in some heaping neurotoxicity.

5) Generics are same chemical as brand.

[AeonFlux]

Thanks for the response. I did get a prescription for 27 mg concerta, which I just tried for the first time. It worked very well, i felt calm and focused, and was able to sleep no problem that night. I did not drink coffee that day, just green tea.

My psychiatrist was reluctant to prescribe the 27 mg, which was surprising. I am a 195 lb, 6'2, 40 year old male with no substance abuse history or other psychiatric problems, so I do not see the justification for being overly cautious. He just loves Strattera though, I may have to change docs if this keeps up. He will probably go ballistic if I ask him for Focalin XR, so I am not even going to bother.

Also, I do not know how many of you have seen this recent article about ADHD patients;

http://www.eurekaler...l-dib090309.php

this paragraph was the most informative;

'The results clearly showed that, relative to the healthy control subjects, the ADHD patients had lower levels of dopamine receptors and transporters in the accumbens and midbrain — two key regions of the brain directly involved in processing motivation and reward. In addition, the measurements of dopamine markers correlated with measures of behavior and clinical observations of ADHD symptoms, such as reduced levels of attention as measured by standard psychological tests.'

I guess this may explain why I experience such a strong effect from a small dosage.

Aeon

[Pike]

if this doctor gives you strattera, run for the hills.

docs are trying to hand out strattera prescriptions because on paper, it looks good, in that it can treat adhd without being a "stimulant" exacty. what most doctors don't understand is that strattera makes anyone w/adhd feel completely oh-dear-god-i-want-to-jump-off-a-cliff miserable for a month straight, and then after that, just mildly miserable. If you doc seems to be going that route, you can maybe ask to switch to Wellbutrin instead. Great safety profile, and most people with ADHD i've met that have taken it regard it pretty high, (though not as high as the stimulant meds).

the one major problem i had with methylphenidate was that it just gave me the worst "zombie mode" ever. I felt super numb and would walk around my house and would forget the reason why I walked into a particular room to begin with. I guess it happens w/some adult adhd, but if it does for you, maybe give welbutrin a try. Has the same mech of action as concerta, mostly.

the major theory about adhd that would go along with the article you read is essentially a dopamine problem. dopamine by itself, despite what people might think, is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. People with ADHD typically have underactive brains and i believe overactive prefrontal cortexes (i think that's what i remember reading, correct me if i'm off anyone), which would result in, essentially, hyperactivity and an inability to shut out outside stimuli. but that's also just one of the theories circulating about for adhd. there's others that say it's a b-vitamin thing, and more theories saying it's a blood sugar problem.

i've found in general, it's best to just take a holistic approach to it, educate yourself, and know what you're getting into before trying any med.