[unfinished]

My doctor put me on 20mg generic ritalin one in the am and one in the pm. Totaling 40mg. I started takeing both in the am and it worked much better. I asked him if I could go to 40mg am and 40mg pm since it only seems to last 5 hours for me. He said I could take one am one noon and one afternoon or two in am and one in afternoon totaling 60mg. I am confused and frustrated because if 40mg works for me and it is gone after 5 hours than why can't I keep a consistent 40 throughout the day. The way he wants it puts me on a roller coaster up down. Any thoughts?

[zoidy]

It's quite possibly because 60mg is the recommended daily maximum dose and that is the highest that he is comfortable prescribing.

However it is quite possible that the 2 + 1 would work almost as well as 2 + 2 because even though the effect isn't there at 5 hours, there is still a good amount of methylphenidate in your system (due to the second release occuring at about 4 hours after the first dose) and the extra dose will boost it up to therapeutic levels.

Worth a try anyway.

[katheryn]

if you are finding it hard on a med that only lasts 4 - 5 hrs why not ask your doc if you can go on a slow release med, there is also patches this form of med gives you steady release into your system