professor revives autism debate

[luckylady74]

can't do links - today's guardian -
it suggests children with autism could benefit fromProzac.
it's not something i'd consider before ds1 was a lot older and capable of deciding for himself, but sometimes i feel like it's so much his anxiety stopping him joining in with life and with my personal experience of prozac i could really see it helping.
thought people might find this interesting

[coppertop]

This is the link here

Off to go and actually read it.

[lulumama]

this is the article

[coppertop]

Ds1 can get very anxious about things but not to the extent that I would consider medication yet.

I think I'd also want to see a lot more research done first. IIRC children with autism can often react differently to NT children when given drugs IYSWIM.

[gess]

i"ve heard it before. Haven't read link but usually it's suggested giving it in very small doses (not the dose you'd use for an AD). Ds1 will never be capable of deciding for himself. I would consider it's use if his OCD became really uncontrollable.

[gess]

As an aside Research Autism drive me absolutely INSANE so I wouldn't take much account of their 'warning'

Some drugs are already sued- risperidrol for example and often with good effect. We haven't used anything with ds1 yet - we haven't had to-but who knows what will happen in the future? If it would improve life for him then we would consider it. Donna Williams is quite into sensible use of these things.

[edam]

One SSRI (drug in the same class) is now banned for children because it increases the risk of suicide. This has only been done after years of drug company cover-ups. So I wouldn't trust any SSRIs in young people, tbh, let alone those who don't actually need them.

[gess]

although seretonin levels are often low in autism so could be useful in some cases.....

[edam]

I take your point, gess, but I'd want LOTS of data about suicide risk and I'd want David Healy to review it and tell me it was OK.

[edam]

(David Healy being the psychiatrist who spent years doing Real Proper Research to uncover all the info Glaxo had very carefully hidden about children killing themselves when taking Seroxat.)

[gess]

I don;'t think that severely autistic children are really at a suicide risk though (or even if they were it wouldn't be recognised as suicide or a suicide attempt). I don't think there would be any data out there to help with the decision for a child like ds1. As it happens we haven';t used any drugs at all at the moment. but I certainly keep the possibilities up my sleeve if his OCD prevented him from actually doing anything (that's the type of situation that I know parents of children like ds1 have used various drugs).

[gess]

I guess this is the model I follow/would follow wrt medication In the UK the really tricky bit is finding someone experienced enough in autism; especially outside London.