Concerta, agressive behavior

My 16 year old son, diagnosed with ADHD, has been on Concerta for 7 months.
Recently his doctor increased his dosage. He tells me that when his medication stops to produce its effect at night, he feels totally hyper. According to him, he did not have this problem when he was on a lower dose. He is in boarding school, and went into trouble recently for acting agressively, at night,towards his peers.
That is the first time it has happened since he started going to school ( his teachers complained about his excessive talking, interrupting , lack of focus, etc. But agressive behavior had never been a problem ).
Could Concerta have this sort of side effects?
Thank you in advance for your input.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Yes, it is possible that a rebound sort of effect occurs as the medication disappears from the system at the end of the approx. 12-hour period. Your son could (and probably should) return to the prior dose and see if the effect disappears. If so, it would confirm the suspicion that the higher dose is the cause of the rebound effect. If he does not do well enough at the lower dose, it would be possible to utilize a different long-acting preparation (probably a sensible plan would be to use an amphetamine-based preparation, such as Adderall (adderrall) XR, rather than another methylphenidate-based product, such as Ritalin LA).

[jesse07]

A related discussion, concerta's side effect was started.