Concerta is a powerful prescription stimulant. Take too much, and you could experience an overdose. How much is too much is personalized. Routine drug users can tolerate much more than someone who has never used Concerta.
A Concerta overdose is dangerous. It’s important to know what one looks like, so you can offer help when needed and lessen the potential for long-term damage.
Anyone can overdose on Concerta. In fact, stimulant medications like this are responsible for rising rates of overdose deaths.
In 2022, about 34,000 Americans died from an overdose of psychostimulants – that’s 32% of all drug overdose deaths [1]. These drugs are very powerful, and even people who have used them for a long time can overdose.
Concerta works by stimulating your central nervous system, so if you overdose, it makes your central nervous system work too hard or too quickly.
Typical signs of a Concerta overdose include the following:[2]
Agitation or irritability
Coma or unconsciousness
Confusion
Convulsions or seizures
Feeling delirious
Euphoria
Fast heartbeat also called tachycardia
Hallucinations
Heart palpitations
Headaches
High body temperature or fever
Sweating
Tremors or twitching muscles
Nausea and Vomiting
Some of these symptoms are easy to spot. The person may look sweaty, twitchy, or agitated. They may vomit or slip into a coma. But some symptoms are invisible. You may not know about them until someone tells you about how they’re feeling.
Anyone can have a Concerta overdose. A dose that’s large enough to overwhelm the central nervous system can cause health problems in anyone, no matter how long you’ve been taking it or how confident you are that you know your limit.
But researchers say that people who overdose on any drug often share the following characteristics:[3]
Injecting drugs rather than swallowing them
Using several drugs at once
Poor mental health
Unstable housing
Witnessing an overdose
Some people who overdose are struggling with Concerta misuse or addiction. They take Concerta that wasn’t prescribed to them, take larger doses than recommended, or take their doses very close together. Others mix Concerta with other substances of abuse like alcohol, benzodiazepines, or opioids.
Others who overdose do so unintentionally. They take two doses at once mistakenly, misread their prescription, or they start a higher dose per their doctors and ingest too much.
Researchers haven’t published studies with clear answers about how much Concerta causes an overdose.[4] They know people can overdose. But the amount that’s safe for one person could be deadly for another.
When a doctor prescribes Concerta, they prescribe a certain dosage based on your size, your medical history, and other factors. After long-term use, your body will also develop a tolerance to Concerta, so you may take a higher dosage than someone of your same size who is newly starting the medication. The amount that causes overdose will vary from person to person because of all of these factors.
It’s also important to keep in mind that your risk for overdose and side effects can be higher if you’re taking Concerta along with other substances. The same is true if you take Concerta when you aren’t sure where it came from, because it could be counterfeit Concerta which can have other substances inside it or have a different dosage than you expect.
Ultimately, the only safe way to use Concerta is to take it as prescribed by your doctor.
The common signs of Concerta overdose mentioned above are a clear roadmap. If you notice these signs, or someone tells you they’re feeling such from drugs, it’s time to take action.
Since Concerta can cause collapse, some people may not be awake and aware. They may not answer your questions clearly or feel capable of talking at all. But you may notice drug paraphernalia around them, or they may have empty pill bottles near them.
A Concerta overdose is a medical emergency. Take the symptoms seriously, and take action when they appear. Call 911 if someone has taken Concerta and has these overdose symptoms [5]:
Seizures
Collapse
Inability to breathe
Coma
Tell the operator that you think you’ve witnessed a Concerta overdose. Describe the symptoms you see. The operator may give you instructions to keep the person safe until help arrives.
If the person is awake, aware, and able to talk to you, call the poison control helpline at 1-800-222-1222.[5] Tell the operator how much Concerta the person took and any other substance you’re aware of, and ask what to do next. You may be encouraged to take the person to the hospital.
No medication can reverse a Concerta overdose, but doctors can use medications to address your symptoms. Recovering in a quiet space that has few triggers can be useful too.[2]
After the person recovers, find an appropriate treatment program. Consider the overdose a clear sign that the drug use is problematic, and get help for the issue as quickly as possible.
If you have a loved one who is abusing Concerta, there are ample treatment resources that can help. Depending on how severe their addiction is, they may be best treated with treatment options like:
If you believe that your loved one needs help, you can talk to them about your concerns and go with them to a treatment center in your area or call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline at 1-800-662-HELP. A professional will be able to talk them through their options and recommend where they can go for help.
The active ingredient in Concerta, called methylphenidate, has a half-life of 1-4 hours, and Concentra is on the upper end of that, usually around 3.5 hours. This means that every 3.5 hours, the amount of Concerta in your systems goes down by half. The amount of time it takes for the Concerta to be fully out of your system varies, but usually about two to three days [6].
Unfortunately yes, a Concerta overdose can be fatal because it can overstimulate your central nervous system and cause life-threatening complications like a heart attack.
If you suspect that you or someone else is overdosing on Concerta, call 911 immediately. Be honest about how much Concerta you took and any other substances you took as well, including alcohol, drugs, and prescription medications. It’s important to note that Narcan doesn’t work for a Concerta overdose because Narcan is only for opioids and Concerta isn’t an opioid.
Evidence Based
6 sources cited
