Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
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autistic kids and meds

Posted by med_empowered on March 23, 2006, at 2:30:13

In reply to Re: zyprexa for autistic kids » med_empowered, posted by Caedmon on March 21, 2006, at 23:31:30

hi! I am **so** glad you responded. The consisten medication (or recommndation to medicated, at least) of autitistic kids has concerned me for some time (epsecially since it seems that antipsychotics are being used a lot), but I don't really know that much about the day-to-day care for people with autism.

So..when you have kids who are medicated or behaving badly, behavioral interventions can help reduce self-injury and other problematic behavior? that's great. I remember also reading that the antipsychotics were (possibly are) pretty commonly used in "treating" kids who are mentally handicapped. I can't fathom that. I mean, it just seems so risky, especially if you're talking long-term medication. A friend of mine works with mentally handicapped kids and adults, and he says that the number of drugs they're on, and the sheer variety, is astounding: some of them are on massive doses of amphetamines (I guess the stimulation keeps some of them calm), while others are on massive doses of mood-stabilizers (he told me about one case where a guy was on several thousand mgs/depakote daily), and still others are on antipsychotics, even old ones (one guy I met through him has been on Haldol for "behavior issues"--he's already showing signs of Tardive dyskinesia).

What's your take on all this? From my perspective, it seems that SSRIs and benzos would be pretty harmless, but that antipsychotics would probably best be restricted to emergencies, given the risks. Do autistic people often have tardive dyskinesia? How do the drugs impair performance/cognition?

Sorry to ask you so many questions...I just think this is an important issue.


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