The Forums › Forums › Ask The Community › Drug limt or max dose › Re: Drug limt or max dose
Trashman, please discuss your concerns with your pharmacist & doctor.
The most important thing you need to know it that generic “Concerta”, is NOT the same as real Concerta.
Concerta IS Concerta, because of its unique, patented delivery system, which delivers the medicine in a certain way, over a certain length of time. Generic “Concerta” does not have this delivery system, so it does not deliver the medicine in the same way, which means it will NOT work the same way!
Real Concerta releases its medicine on a special way, so you get a bit of an initial hit, followed by ramping-up over several hours, then tapering-off gradually. Generic “Concerta” just gives you a really big hit, which then gradually tapers off. That really big hit could be why you’re feeling over-medicated, and having such a huge crash-and-burn—especially if you’re taking such a high dose.
Rick explains this difference in detail, here: http://totallyadd.com/generics-part-4
There is such a huge difference between real Concerta and generic, that Health Canada is now carefully studying the matter, and will probably formally declare that generic “Concerta” is NOT a substitute for real Concerta.
Unfortunately, real Concerta costs more than generic, so, like me, you may not be able to afford the real thing. Fortunately, the manufacturer of Concerta has a patient assistance program, which will cover the difference between what your insurance (including government drug benefit plans) covers, and the actual cost of the drug. This assistance plan is FREE.
Just ask your pharmacist about the Concerta patient assistance program. He or she should have the cards behind the counter. The pharmacist just enters the information into the computer, submits it, and in just a couple of minutes, you’ll be approved. After that, you’ll get your Concerta at low-cost or no-cost to you.
To make sure your pharmacist will only give you real Concerta, you must ask your doctor to HAND-WRITE “No Substitutions” on the prescription. It must be hand-written, because pharmacists can (and will) ignore it if it’s printed-on or rubber-stamped.
The special delivery system of real Concerta makes a HUGE difference in the way it works. If you try it, you’ll definitely notice the difference!
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