Astral Codex Ten

Concerta

4 min read

Concerta

Article

Concerta is a recurring brand in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between January 25, 2021 and July 06, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “Next I switched to Concerta, which worked, but increased my anxiety”; “half the kids got Concerta (ie long-acting Ritalin)“. It most often appears alongside Ritalin, Adderall, ADHD.

Metadata

  • Category: Brands
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: January 25, 2021
  • Last seen: July 06, 2022

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Know Your Amphetamines
January 25, 2021 · Original source
How is this not more widely prescribed? My doc had me on Strattera at first, didn't help at all. Next I switched to Concerta, which worked, but increased my anxiety, and I had a crash. Next I switched to Adderall, which had almost the same effect as Concerta but on top of that I had no appetite. Finally I switched to Desoxyn and that's when my life started to turn around. My grades instantly went up and homework became fun for me. Math problems became like a puzzle, and history became fun, like watching a real-life movie. Right when I made the switch to Desoxyn, I got caught up on ALL my homework and my grades instantly switched from D's and F's to B's and A's. Not only that, but my social anxiety was completely GONE.
Study: Ritalin Works, But School Isn't Worth Paying Attention To
July 06, 2022 · Original source
173 kids, mostly Hispanic boys age 7-12, were in a “therapeutic ADHD summer camp” intended to help them learn focusing and attention-directing techniques (style tip: do not call this a “concentration camp”). The kids had two short classes each day, one on vocabulary and one on a grab bag of different subject matters. For the first three weeks, half the kids got Concerta (ie long-acting Ritalin) and the other half didn’t, then they switched for the next three weeks. As an additional test, there was a ten minute period each day when the kids were asked to do math problems as fast as possible. Here are the results:
“OROS-MPH” is Martian for Concerta. The bottom left graph is how many math problems kids completed per minute. Kids on Concerta do math about 50% faster, and this difference is significant. Bottom right is number of classroom rule violations per hour. Kids on Concerta only cause trouble about half as often, and this is significant too. So the Concerta’s clearly doing something, and I think it would be fair to describe that thing as “making kids pay more attention”.
The bottom left graph is how many math problems kids completed per minute. Kids on Concerta do math about 50% faster, and this difference is significant. Bottom right is number of classroom rule violations per hour. Kids on Concerta only cause trouble about half as often, and this is significant too. So the Concerta’s clearly doing something, and I think it would be fair to describe that thing as “making kids pay more attention”.