What does the medicine called concerta do

Could i get a medicine called “Ritalin (methylphenidate)”…?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090424080730AAyBCs2

No. Ritalin is a drug prescribed for ADD.

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my son has mild autism and was advised to drink medicine, but he refuses to drink. any techniques?

Q: as mentioned above, my 7 year old son has mild autism and we were told to give him this medicine called ‘concerta’, which is in a tablet form. the problem with it is that i can’t get him to drink this medicine… how do i convince him to take it? any advice?

A: Autism, generally speaking, is not fully treatable by prescription meds, they only mask the underlying root cause and can have some nasty side effects.Concerta, is a form of methylphenidate, a drug used to treat ADHD. Most children on the spectrum do NOT respond well to ADHD drugs, it can make them worse. ADHD and Autism are similar in some ways, but also very different. We tried my 8y old son w/ autism on 4 different ADHD drugs before we just gave up…they did not work for him, and they ususally don’t for any child on the spectrum.How old is your son? As a mom who has tried Rx drugs and seen them fail, and cause other problems and mask the real problem, I would not recommend you give this to your child. But that is a decision you and your husband must make together.Treating a child w/ autism requires a holistic approach, comprised of:Dietary intervention: look into the GFCF diet (http://www.bbbautism.com/biomedical/beginning_the_gfcf_diet.htm) this site will give you tips on how to get started and also signs/symptoms to look for to see if your child will benefit from this diet.Avoid foods that have artificial ingredients like preservatives, colors/dyes (have been linked to agressiveness, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness in children), artificial flavors, MSG (has been linked to Alzheimer’s, which closely resembles Autism, just at different stages of life), cut out high fructose corn syrup, and Aspartame.Limit sugar intake.Stick to a diet rich in whole, natural foods, lean meats…try to buy organics, they have not had pesticides used on them.Kids w/ autism have a system that has been compromised by many, many environmental factors and genetics….that is why it is important to limit/avoid contact w/ as much of this stuff as possible. The second part of this, after diet is supplementing with the right combination of vitamins, minerals, and Essential Fatty Acids. A DAN! practitioner can help you with this.Another part, is Therapy…this could be speech, Occupational or Physical therapy, depending on your child’s needs. ABA therapy is also very important.I feel I can tell you all of this because we are doing all of this w./ my son….we have been doing biomed intervention w/ him for almost 2 months, and he has already made some progress.Less stuttering, better behavior, eating better, more aware of his surroundings, asking more questions, doing better in school. There is more, but I don’t want to write a book here…lol!Biomedical works for these kids, find a DAN! doc.http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/Medical/Biomedical.html( a good article on what biomed is all about).Read this book, it really helped me to understand what is going w/ my son’s body.Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and AllergiesThe Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A DisordersBy Dr. Kenneth Bock, M.D. and Cameron StauthI hope all of this info helps you, best wishes!

What does it feel like on concerta or ridaline ?

Q: My boyfriend has been messing around with prescription pills such as Concerta and ridaline – the drug is actually called methylphenidate the ADHD medicine, what happens if you take like more than your supposed to of them or sniff them if you are not prescribed to them .i just want to know what it feels like , he said it makes him feel really good but i think hes addicted to them .

A: Common Side effectsNervousnessInsomniaLess common side effectsanorexianauseadizzinesspalpitationsheadachedyskinesiadrowsinesspulse and blood pressure changes, both up and downtachycardiaanginacardiac arrhythmiaabdominal painabnormal bleedingweight loss during prolonged therapyurticaria like rash and itchingDuring treatment of children, the following may occur more frequently:loss of appetiteabdominal painweight loss during prolonged therapyinsomniaKnown or suspected risks to healthResearchers have also looked into the role of methylphenidate in affecting stature, with some studies finding slight decreases in height acceleration. Other studies indicate height may normalize by adolescence. In a 2005 study, only “minimal effects on growth in height and weight were observed” after 2 years of treatment. “No clinically significant effects on vital signs or laboratory test parameters were observed.A 2003 study tested the effects of dextromethylphenidate (Focalin), levomethylphenidate, and (racemic) detro-, levomethylphenidate (Ritalin) on mice to search for any carcinogenic effects. The researchers found that all three preparations were non-genotoxic and non-clastogenic; d-MPH, d, l-MPH, and l-MPH did not cause mutations or chromosomal aberrations. They concluded that none of the compounds present a carcinogenic risk to humans.In February 2005, a team of researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center led by R.A. El-Zein announced that a study of 12 children indicated that methylphenidate may be carcinogenic. In the study, 12 children were given standard therapeutic doses of methylphenidate. At the conclusion of the 3-month study, all 12 children displayed significant treatment-induced chromosomal aberrations. The researchers indicated that their study was relatively small and their results needed to be reproduced in a bigger population for a definitive conclusion about the genotoxicity of methylphenidate to be drawn.In response to the El-Zein study published in 2005, a team of six scientists from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and the Department of Toxicology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany began a more in-depth study. They sought to respond to the challenge noted above to attempt to replicate the results of El-Zein et al. in a larger study. Their paper was completed in 2006 and published in 2007 in Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), the peer-reviewed journal of the United States’ National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. This study used a larger cohort and a longer period of follow-up and included a small group of long-term users, but otherwise used what researchers believed to be an identical methodology to that used by El-Zein et al. (They note that El-Zein et al. published a short study report and did not publish detailed descriptions of methodology.) After follow-ups at six months, the researchers found no evidence that methylphenidate might cause cancer, stating “the concern regarding a potential increase in the risk of developing cancer later in life after long-term MPH treatment is not supported”.The effects of long-term methylphenidate treatment on the developing brains of children with ADHD is the subject of study and debate.Although the safety profile of short-term methylphenidate therapy in clinical trials has been well established, repeated use of psychostimulants such as methylphenidate is less clear.The use of ADHD medication in children under the age of 6 has not been studied. Severe hallucinations may occur. ADHD symptoms include hyperactivity and difficulty holding still and following directions; these are also characteristics of a typical child under the age of 6. For this reason it may be more difficult to diagnose young children, and caution should be used with this age group.On March 22, 2006 the FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee decided that medications using methylphenidate ingredients do not need black box warnings about their risks, noting that “for normal children, these drugs do not appear to pose an obvious cardiovascular risk.”Previously, 19 possible cases had been reported of Cardiac arrest linked to children taking methylphenidate and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee to the FDA recommend a “black-box” warning in 2006 for stimulant drugs used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.According to a small study conducted by the Society of Nuclear Medicine, the use of methylphenidate in certain individuals for reasons outside of its intended clinical applications may adversely affect cognitive performance. Specifically, methylphenidate positively affected brain glucose metabolism in subjects who performed well at baseline on an accuracy-controlled cognitive task, but caused further deterioration of mental processing in subjects who performed poorly at baseline. In other words, certain individuals without ADHD who take the drug to enhance concentration and focus may inadvertently make things worse.However, in a paper published in Biological Psychiatry (June 24, 2008 online), researchers report that methylphenidate fine-tunes the functioning of neurons in the prefrontal cortex – a brain region involved in attention, decision-making and impulse control – while having few effects outside it. The team studied PFC neurons in rats under a variety of methylphenidate doses, including one that improved the animals’ performance in a working memory task of the type that ADHD patients have trouble completing. Using microelectrodes, the scientists observed both the random, spontaneous firings of PFC neurons and their response to stimulation of the hippocampus. When they listened to individual PFC neurons, the scientists found that while cognition-enhancing doses of methylphenidate had little effect on spontaneous activity, the neurons’ sensitivity to signals coming from the hippocampus increased dramatically. Under higher, stimulatory doses, on the other hand, PFC neurons stopped responding to incoming information. Another study suggests that methylphenidate improves spatial orientation and working memory in rats on the radial arm maze.[edit]Scheduling and abuse potentialIt is generally accepted that methylphenidate is the closest pharmaceutical equivalent to cocaine, as studies have shown that cocaine addicts cannot distinguish between the two drugs when administered intravenously. However, cocaine has a much higher affinity for the dopamine receptor in comparison to methylphenidate, which is thought to be the mechanism of the euphoria associated with the cocaine high.In the United States, methylphenidate is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance, the designation used for substances that have a recognized medical value but present a high likelihood for abuse because of their addictive potential. Internationally, methylphenidate is a Schedule II drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances

How can i keep weight on/gain weight while on medicine helping ADD?

Q: About a month and a half ago I started taking a med called Concerta to help my ADD, but I’m losing weight pretty fast. I’m 6’1″ and weigh 157, when i started i weighed 166. I know that i have to change my diet to get a higher calorie intake. What foods would be good for this? Should and start drinking protein shakes every morning?

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