Tomorrow my grandaughter switches from ritilan to concerta. The doctor stated that there are no side effects with this medication. However I have learned that I can find out things on message boards that doctors never relate to a patient = ) So if anyone has used concerta please reply with your experience. So far all I know is that concerta is supposed to last longer even than the slow release ritilan. Thanx, dia

I switched from adderrall to concerta and it is great. 1 pill aday and no side effects. i was having problems with the adderall that i haven't had with concerta. I think this switch will be ok for her... Good Luck

concerta is slow release ritalin. My son has been on it for 2 weeks, but it seems to work great for about 5 hours, then, nothing. 8 to 10 hours is what they expect, but I guess my kid is different?

He eats great, no sleep problems. no upset stomache. We have absolutely no problems, other than it doesnt last long enough.

I want to thank agteach and dij for your quick responses to my post about concerta. One update.....I ask pharmacist to fax me an information sheet about concerta including possible side affects and she did. Some of the side effects are: loss of appetite, blrred vision, dizziess, ligjtheadedness, dru mouth, stomach upset, sleeplessness, irritability or constipation durring first few days as body adjusts to the medication. While many of these are the same as ritilin I feel the doctor erred in telling me there were NO side effects. Hope this is helpful to others who are having difficulty finding info about this drug.

The one thing that IS A HUGE THING TO REMEMBER about Concerta, is that is MUST be swollowed whole. never broken or crushed.

It is time release, the water in your stomache is absorbed in the pill and more of the medication is released. biting the pill or breaking it in any way can cause a rush of the medication to enter the bloodstream.

Make sure your child understands to not bite this thing, but to eat it whole.

:::I started out with Ritalin then was switched to Concerta. After taking each of these drugs, it was discovered that they both were toxic to my liver (lab tests due to a company physical). Was then put on Wellbutrin - no help whatsoever. Next came Adderall - bad side effects - racing heart/pounding chest - but it did NOT bother my liver. Finally, presently on Dexadrine - so far, so good. Will have liver panel done in about 1 month. With any luck, it won't be toxic. If it is, then I'm done with drugs. By the way, I'm a 44 year old female diagnosed 8 months ago with ADD Inattentive type. Keeping my fingers crossed!

hi caron.....did you have any symptoms that indicated that the drugs were toxic to your liver or was it discovered accidentally?

thanks!

Emmeline....my liver problems were discovered accidentally when I had a routine company physical. Otherwise would have never known - no symptoms!

test

I hope to hell that I don't have any liver probs. w/ Concerta, because so far, 1 wk in, it is working great. Strattera sucked, dizzy when standing up, hot flashes, drowziness, forget it.
Concerta was so great b/c of that long lasting affect. Instead of the peaks and valleys, where you feel like rebuilding your house for an hour and then burned out and agitated.
I think you should get another liver panel done to make sure that Concerta is a problem for you, b/c they don't routinely test for liver on rit, or concerta, the only one they do that for is Cylert. Some tests are faulty, I work in medical and you don't want to know how faulty they can be. I mean, they may be right, but it might be worth a check. I have had a liver test done, and I used to take rit, and adderall. So I hope that would have caught any damage. And Concerta is very close to ritalin, so hopefully I'm good to go. Also, make sure you don't have anything else that is causing liver toxicity. Especially with those pesky natural herbs, vitamins. Nobody knows what they can do in combo with prescribed drugs.
KRis