Straws

At 6:40 am this morning I drove across town to pick up my latest attempt to kick this depression for good. Which should give you an idea about my current level of desperation.

I'm in the valley of a peak right now, or else I'd actually be optimistic about this latest experiment. Based on the theory that the double-bead delivery method of Adderall is being shot all to hell by my eccentric metabolism (or that my liver goes through amphetamines like a kid through Halloween candy)**, my shrinker has prescribed Concerta, which is basically Adderall by way of Ritalin with a nifty little delivery system.

"CONCERTA? uses osmotic pressure to deliver methylphenidate HCl at a controlled rate. The system, which resembles a conventional tablet in appearance, comprises an osmotically active trilayer core surrounded by a semipermeable membrane with an immediate-release drug overcoat. The trilayer core is composed of two drug layers containing the drug and excipients, and a push layer containing osmotically active components.

So, what does this fancy-schmancy, new-falutin' contraption do?

"There is a precision-laser drilled orifice on the drug-layer end of the tablet. In an aqueous environment, such as the gastrointestinal tract, the drug overcoat dissolves within one hour, providing an initial dose of methylphenidate. Water permeates through the membrane into the tablet core. As the osmotically active polymer excipients expand, methylphenidate is released through the orifice. The membrane controls the rate at which water enters the tablet core, which in turn controls drug delivery."

Cool, hunh? I thought so. Anyway, I took my first "barrell-shaped" tablet about a half hour ago...we'll see what happens. If I'm in a good mood in spite of the current chick-angst music they've got going here at Starbucks, we may just have a winner.

**I have my own alternate theory about the Adderall non-effecacy...something that ties my insatiable curiosity and hunger to know the why of everything in with the low level of either a) feel good neurotransmitters or b) receptors for said neurotransmitters. However, I'm sure that somewhere, a neuroscientist is either all over this posit or is reading this and sadly shaking his head.