Posted by ChicagoKat on July 28, 2012, at 21:40:53
In reply to Re: Ritalin not working? Depression, posted by Tomatheus on July 27, 2012, at 21:56:28
> Hello Kat, and welcome to Psycho-Babble. I'm going to say right off the bat that I can't really explain why you're no longer responding to Ritalin. My best guess would be that there's probably a biological explanation as to why you seemed to stop responding to the medication after you discontinued it and then resumed taking it, but I don't know for sure. Maybe you would have stopped responding to the Ritalin even if you hadn't temporarily discontinued it, or (and this is probably more likely) perhaps there was something about discontinuing the medication that made it less likely that you'd respond to it again.
>
> One thing that I would do if I were you would be to check to make sure that you're taking the same version of Ritalin that you were taking before. Sometimes generic versions of medications don't always work as well as the brand-name versions of the medications or even other generic versions made by different manufacturers. So, I would check to make sure that the version of Ritalin that you're taking now is the same as the one that you were taking before you discontinued it. If you are taking the same version of Ritalin that you were taking before, I'd consider asking your doctor about a time-release version of Ritalin. I don't know how the instant-release version of Ritalin compares with the time-release versions of the medication as far as effectiveness is concerned, but I don't think that it would hurt at this point to try a slightly different version of the same medication (Ritalin/methylphenidate) to see if you can get your responsiveness to the medication back.
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> That basically sums up my thoughts on your situation. I'm sorry that you're in the situation that you're in, and it certainly is my hope that you'll find some way to recapture at least some of the benefits that you had after you initially started taking Ritalin. I also wish you luck in finding a good fact-based explanation as to why you're no longer responsive to Ritalin. I'm not sure if you'll find a good detailed explanation because there are limits to our understanding of the way drugs affect our physiology, feelings, and behaviors, but I do hope that you get some responses that you find to be at least satisfactory.
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> TomatheusThanks for your post Tomatheus. It is a good line of thinking because I was originally on the 10mg tablets (two per dose), but then I was switched to the 20mg tabs. What I find that is also of interest is that now, not only does the Ritalin not have an effect on my mood, but it also does not affect my blood pressure and heart rate the way it used to. They both previously got high enough that I had to be on 3 antihypertensives, and now I actually have low blood pressure, without any antihypertensives, even when I take my ineffective Ritalin. So I will investigate this and, if nothing else, request to go back on the 10mg tabs.
Thanks again,
Kat
poster:ChicagoKat
thread:1022230
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120718/msgs/1022338.html