Food for thought re ASD ....

[waitingforgodot]

I thought this article was interesting.Thought I'd share it with you www.nomorefakenews.com/archives/archiveview.php?key=3680

Read this with great interest.

We have just started our ds1 (10) on Rispiridrone 4 days ago , we have delayed it for 2 yrs but unfortunately it has become neccesary evil as it is only an matter of time before he attacked one of us and did some serious damage.

We don't like it and like many of you we really dislike putting antipsycotics meant for adults into his system, but for the saftey of our two yr old and ourselves we have too.

I realise some will condemn our actions but I think until you have lived with the level of violence that we do on a daily basis you can't really judge.

We stopped melatonion, DH took it for a few nights when he was on night shifts and said it was the worst sleep he'deverexperienced; we also noted a steeprise in nightmares and a restart of bedwetting with the boys so dropped it. I am looking at asking for some for occasional use though

Loads of research on risperidone available on Uni search engones if anyone has access,this onewas intruguing 'Introduction: Many of children with autism have hyperacusia, an increased sensation to sound. It can lead to their avoidance from some sounds or they may cover their ears. There was not found any published report about possible effect of any medication for improving hyperacusia in children with autism. Case Report: The patient is a 5 and half year old girl with autism and hyperacusia. According to her mother's report, severity of hyperacusia was improved after taking risperidone. Conclusion: Hyperacusia was improved after initiation of risperidone and disappeared after discontinuation of risperidone. It re-happened in the re-challenge test. This supports the possible role of risperidone. To the author's knowledge, this is the first report of possible risperidone effect on hyperacusia in the literature.' But haven't ahd time tor ead the sheer mass out there

JJ - we all have to have some quality of life and it sounds like your ds was disrupting family life as well as probably damaging his own quality of life experience by his aggression being uncontrollable. FWIW I think you are doing the best thing for your son.

Thanks Nikos

Feel horrid giving it to him every night, but in my heart I know it's the best thing for all concerned. So far he seems to be improving on it, we've still had some meltdowns but so far the house is still intact and so are we, no extra bruises this holiday!

riven- ds1 recently saw a neurologist (from Bristol!) and he suggested diets, they're also checking some vitamin levels (to rule out simple treatments). They were very open to various metabolic disorders being the cause of ds1's severe autism. Just hard to explore as he is so difficult to treat medically or test.

Of course it's very difficult to get to see a neurologist in the first place.