Concerta side effects of major anxiety/phobia

Gwen - posted on 06/29/2011

Typically, ADHD kids suffer from low esteem when being made fun of for things like being caught daydreaming when teacher asks them a question. Meds can help with this, but in my son's case, the meds' side effects caused him to be made fun of for other things. His appetite was nil until after 7pm and he became so thin that he was always made fun of in gym class. More low self esteem. We pulled him off all meds because they all made him unusually short-tempered, even in classroom or playing hockey. We found the side effects even worse than having ADHD, so we chose the lesser of two evils. He's in high school now and is very well-behaved with no meds. Focus is a major problem still.

Tina - posted on 06/29/2011

I son is on Concerta, 54mg, and will be turning 7 in September. We haven't had any paranoia side effects, however, he does have a sleeping problem. He goes to bed pretty well, but staying asleep and waking up early is a problem. We have tried other medications for ADHD, but Concerta has been the best one for him so far.

Kimberlee - posted on 06/29/2011

One more thing to add to that, he is now on Metadate, well, not for the summer though, as we are searching for a psychiatrist who can prescribe something else to try, but Metadate is the timed release generic Ritalin, and he has never "bugged out" on it. It's interesting to hear how one drug may affect one child but not another.

Right now, he's not taking anything, other than 10 mg of Celexa for his mood. We haven't found anything that is a good fit for his ADHD. All of the stimulant meds seem to have negative side effects, some (like Focalin) worse than others for him. We had alot of success with Adderall but eventually that causes problems to, so went to the Metadate (Ritalin) and it's just not effective enough.

Kimberlee - posted on 06/29/2011

When we were trying my son on several different stimulant medications I remember one of them, I think it was Focalin, affected him that way, we gave him the med and then a couple hours later went for a hike to the beach and he was completely petrified of a fly in the van and then of mosquitoes on the hike. I had NEVER seen him act this way around insects before EVER, not even slightly. So we didn't give him any more Focalin after that and never saw that behavior again.

Jane - posted on 06/22/2011

One thing we did for my son was to switch to a different dosing method. Ritalin always worked for him so we stayed with the same family of drugs. Concerta is time-release Ritalin, but so is Metadate and also Ritalin LA. However, they use different delivery methods. To summarize:



Concerta comes in 18, 27, 36, and 54 mg. The 1st release of Concerta is 22% of the dosage and the 2nd release is 78%. It is supposed to mimic 3 times a day dosing and lasts 10-12 hours. My son was taking two in the morning (108 mg of Ritalin).



Metadate CD only comes in 20 mg. The 1st release of Metadate CD is 30% of the dosage and the 2nd release is 70%. It is supposed to mimic twice a day dosing and lasts 4-8 hours. My son takes two in the morning and one at lunch time, so he is taking far less Ritalin overall (60 mg per day instead of 108 mg).



Concerta got to where it wasn't working any longer and we couldn't increase it any more. We tried the lower dose of Metadate and things improved. We then added Guanfacine, which works specifically on impulsivity and hyperactivity, and thus reduces anger and anxiety as well as decreases the amount of Ritalin my son needs.



Also, for kids who have both anxiety and ADHD, Strattera might work. It didn't do a thing for my son, but it may work on yours. It is best to start Strattera in the summer because it takes a few weeks to work.



There is also Adderall and Vyvanse, but they are still stimulants which can exacerbate anxiety. In addition, they didn't do much for my son. Some people do better on this family of stimulants, some do better on Ritalin.



In any case. talk to your doctor and see what suggestions he has. Anxiety, ADHD, OCD and several other disorders are all related so sometimes you need to fine-tune each child's meds for their particular needs.