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May 23, 2008, 12:38 pm
Flag as Inappropriate anniefromcalif  

I was reading the topic on Diabetes and coffee which brought back an incident I encountered in the mid 1970's while my ex-husband and I were house parents for 6 boys aged 5 through 13. This facility housed a total of 36 boys that had been removed from their homes due to neglectful parents. This facility had six individual houses spread out over the community and hired couples to come in and be parents. They went to school at the main facility with special teachers and we also did our grocery shopping there as well. The facility also had it own physicians because the majority of the children had medical and mental issues. It really was a nice setup.

One of the children I took care of was 13 years

of age and suffered from psychotic behavior. He also could be very violent at times. One of the drugs he was given was Ritalin. These medications were kept at the house under lock and key. I usually administered the drugs and recorded it in the log book. On this one specific night, my husband accidently gave him another dose of it shortly after I had. To this day I don't know why, but within an hour this child started bouncing off the walls and really getting out of hand. Because this was such unusual behavior for him after receiving meds, my husband and I finally started to speculate what could be wrong when we figured out he had been overdosed so to speak. Realizing what had then happened, we phoned the doctor immediately to find out what should be done. He stated to give him a cup of coffee with alittle milk in it and a small teaspoon of sugar. We did as we were told and within 30 minutes at the maximum he had calmed down and went to sleep. No ill effects the next morning of any kind. To this day I am still amazed at the effects of coffee or the caffeine, the pros and the cons.

Now that is interesting. I wonder how the caffeine interacts with a ritalin overdose? How very strange.

I agree, that's interesting. I never heard of it before.

You are not the only one amazed, most would think the mix would end up doing more harm than good (so to say he/she would become more hyper that is).

Ritalin and caffiene usually calm someone under the age of 13 or who hasn't reached puberty. It is unusual, but since the boy was 13, it could be that his Ritalin wasn't working well to begin with, and the added dose worked as it would in someone past puberty and energized him.

Often, as kids reach puberty, the effects of Ritalin are unpredictable.

That is actually very interesting. Wonder how that interacts with the od.

It depends on what the usual dosage was. If the milligram level per pill is high, then overdose would be more likely if someone took two pills. But, if the milligrams per pill were lower, then two pills might not constitute a true overdose.

Sometimes, taking twice the suggested does intensifies the effect of the medication without doing damage. You just see different behavior.

Could it be that the milligrams per pill were low, and the double dose wasn't actually an overdose? If so, then this would explain the doctor's recommendation. It is unusual for a doctor to suggest a course of action that doesn't include the emergency room if there is a true overdose.