Posted by Rainbow on November 12, 2002, at 23:05:45
In reply to Re: Stopping Concerta _ Side effects, posted by Bekka H. on January 18, 2002, at 22:29:59
>
> I am not a Breggin follower either; however, he does offer some good advice for tapering off meds: He says to withdraw by NOT MORE THAN 10% per week. When you get to the last taper (from the smallest number of milligrams to nothing), take it even slower than that. Draw that last increment out as long as possible, even if it means just taking smaller and smaller chips of the medicine. Of course, with Concerta, you can't cut the pills into chips, so you might want to talk to your doctor about taking another form of methylphenidate that you can cut or break into tiny chips when you finally reach that low dose.
I take a varied amount of Concerta each day. My prescription is 54mg, but I take 162mg or higher on a regular basis. I do not take it on the weekends and i have had no withdrawl or side effects from not taking the medicine. When I stop taking it for about a day I regain my appitite and my stomach does not hurt any more, though I still continue to take huge doses of it. The most i have ever taken at one time is 270mg(before school.) it takes away all your self conciousness when you have that much in your system, but when it wheres off (VERY late that night) you feel SLIGHTLY disoriented. As with any dose you lose your appitite. I have muscle spazms and twitches, greatly increased persperation. I swim everyday and I feel awful for the first 20 minutes of practice, after that, unless I have been taking a lot for an extended period of time, I feel great. Will Concerta increase/decrease acne, and what are the effects on your heart? I do not think that the extreme weaning that the other posters have suggested is really needed. I would cut back to 72mg a day, then, after 2-3 days go back to your prescribed dose. If you want to quit completely stop taking any dose after 1-2 days on your prescribed dose. This is not to day that the other posts were wrong, this is simply what I, myself, would do. Different people under different circumstances require different things.
Thank you for your feedback.
poster:Rainbow
thread:90507
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021108/msgs/127449.html