Concerta/Ritalin
 

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask this, but I could really use some advice, so here goes...

So in the four weeks since I filled my pill sorter, I somehow managed to lose my Concerta bottle (I've spent over an hour looking for, but haven't found it), so I don't have any to take tomorrow, and can't get a new prescription until Monday... But I do have normal immediate release Ritalin, which is the same active ingredient, and what I used to take before I switched to Concerta so I didn't have to take it three times a day, so I can take that instead except I'm not sure how much to take. I normally take 72 mg of Concerta in the morning, and the prescribing info says that that's the recommended starting dose for people taking 20 mg methylphenidate three times per day, so should I take 20 mg (three times like I used to before I switched to Concerta)? The only thing is I'm not sure how accurate their dose conversions really are, cause that's based on the assumption that one dose of Concerta lasts 12 hours, and really it lasts more like 8-9 hours (which is why I have Ritalin in the first place, cause if I get up early enough then it's worn off by mid-afternoon and if I still need to be able to do stuff then I have to take Ritalin at that point), so they're comparing 72 mg of Concerta to taking three 20 mg doses of Ritalin, four hours apart, and it seems pretty reasonable, except that really Concerta only covers the first two doses, which are a total of 40 mg, which isn't even close, so I'm wondering if I should actually take more like 25 or 30 mg?

Also, the Ritalin that I have says to discard after May '09, so it's like a month and a half to two months out of date. I would guess they probably give a fairly wide margin for that and it's close enough not to matter much, but is that going to make any difference? And am I right that it's usually just that medications are less potent when they're past their expiration date, and it's not like dangerous or anything, they just might not work as well?

And I know I should ask my doctor or pharmacist, but it's Sunday, so my doctor won't be there, and I think the pharmacy's open, but trying to drive to the pharmacy when I haven't taken my meds is quite probably more dangerous than f***ing around with the meds (especially since I'll be staying well within FDA approved doses, and probably well under what I'm currently taking, but even if I wasn't I honestly think I'm more likely to hurt myself trying to drive when I literally can't even make myself look at the road for more than a few seconds, than by taking slightly too high a dose of Ritalin)...

We can't really give you advice on this here as it is to do with prescription meds which are things which only your prescribing doctor/ other doctors can do; it may be beyond the realms of a pharmacist. As Concerta is what's known as Extended release the amounts in your body at any one time are lower than what they get with the Ritalin and so the doses cannot be compared in the same way and you can't really swap and change drugs like that just until you get a prescription as it does mess up the constant levels in your blood and so will mean that once it is sorted for the next few days the levels in your blood will no longer be constant which would occur once you've been on them for a certain length of time and once they begin to have their full effect so a simple change from one drug to the other and back again will not be the case as how it is delivered is altered significantly.

SO, what I'm suggesting is the best thing for you to do is contact an out of hours GP; your own doctor may do an out of hours service, or the ER and see what they suggest. It may be that they will write you out a prescription for the next few days and you or someone else can pick it up from there tonight(your time) or they can suggest what to do in terms of the meds you already have but this is all we can say on the FAF as it is really beyond our capacities.

Because of this I will now lock this thread and if you still have unanswered questions feel free to contact me via PM