Concerta wearing off too quickly

[Anonymous]

My DS, 10, combined ADHD started Concerta recently after years on Focalin. We like Concerta better in terms of focusing on school work.
however, it doesn’t last the whole school day as we thought it’ll be. He’s been on 36mg for a few weeks. We tried a higher dose (54 mg) but it’s too much, especially the first couple of hours, so thus won’t work for now.

Yesterday we tried 36mg again in The morning and then 18mg at noon but he had sleeping issues and he lost a couple of hours of sleep. I don’t like that so we may go back to just 36mg a day, and see what else can be done to cover for the second half of school day.

It’ll be helpful to see if others also experience something similar with Concerta wearing off quickly and if they have to add a booster, and what kind, or if it can be taken with a non stimulant like strattera.
(His psychiatrist mentioned adding strattera to Focalin, in the past and of course all this trial we are doing is under his supervision).

[Anonymous]

My DD has a similar issue with 36 mg Concerta. We pushed her 36 mg Concerta dose to right before she walked out the door to go to school and then give her a 10 mg short acting version of methylphenidate around 3:30. So far it is working with no sleep disturbance.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply and glad that a small dose of methylphenidate as booster works! That’s probably what we’ll end up trying too to compare with the current effects.

[Anonymous]

DD 15 is on 27 mg concerta. Anything higher makes her so anxious she experiences "dread". It's a bummer because she did like the increased concentration on the 36mg but decided the anxiety and dread simply wasnt worth it.