When I take Ritalin, I need to take an initial dose of 15-20mg for it to be effective (and then taper it down every 50 minutes otherwise I get jittery). But when I was on Concerta, 18mg was not enough, even though it is roughly the same dosage. Is the Concerta dosage not comparable to that of the Ritalin as it is spread out over a longer period? I know 30mg of Ritalin would be way too much for me – but does that necessarily mean that 36mg of Concerta would too?
While you already have your answer, I thought I’d share this for anyone wanting to know a bit more about how Concerta works. The pills themselves use an osmotic-controlled release oral delivery system where part of the dose is given immediately and the rest is slowly given as the drug gets squeezed out a little hole (that’s drilled out by lasers!) by osmotic pressure. It’s really cool stuff and makes it quite different to Ritalin IR in how it feels and works.