[Mintjelly]

Erin, when I had to make the decision to medicate DD I was devastated! I thought it would make her a zombie and she would loose the highs as well as the lows. It took a lot of soul searching for me to eventually even trial it.

It was only my BFF saying to me, put her on it for a trial, if she turns into a zombie take her off it and go back to the drawing board.

So I trialled it, and the results were amazing. Nothing like what AD's had done to me in the past (ie flat lining emotion wise)

She is sooo much happier, and copes so much better socially than ever before. She went from an incredibly negative little girl, to a little girl who walks through the house singing to herself I most definitely did not loose her to the medication, rather got back the happy little girl I know she can be!

Obviously as per my last thread when there is a lot of stress she reverts to having meltdowns, in fact atm she is quite manic. But we have actually upped her dose to 3/4 of a tablet, just to help her manage for the next 7 weeks or so.

It is not just about her happiness (she is so upset when she hurts her siblings) but also for her siblings who become quite scared of her when she is in this frame of mind.

Not saying you ever have to medicate if you don't want to, rather just letting you know that I felt that way prior to going there iykwim.

I am afraid that I am not cluey enough to even understand how they would begin to go about trialling things I know that brilliant scientific minds, can do things that don't even register in my brain lol,

This post has been edited by Mintjelly: 11/04/2012, 07:31 PM

[Mumsyto2]

Sorry, have had a nightmare of a day (think forensics still in my backyard...) and fired off my response quite quickly... I thought the "her and her only" part would indicate that I'm only talking about her level of difficulty, at this point in time etc etc.... that said - If a prescription could be tailored to "fix" the bad stuff, but leave the awesome stuff, I'd take it any day of the week - but it's unlikely. I guess in the event things became progressively worse, I might have to think long and hard about sacrificing some of the "good" to fix the downright awful.

It's all just hypothetical for now though.... I do hope that they suss it out, because I can see the usefullness.

I'm not sure why you are so convinced that any potential and at this stage hypothetical ASD medicine will definitely destroy the 'awesome stuff' and 'sacrifice the good'. I'm not saying it won't but there is no evidence that it would. At this stage as I anticipate any such medication would have quite a unique mechanism unlike anything we have experienced to date in regards to medications in the mental health arena yet you seem so fixated in your mind that it would follow a certain formula and have certain effects. I don't know either way but am leaving my thinking open in this regard until I see what if anything comes along.

I don't mean to pick but your thinking re medications destroying the essence of the person and what makes them them etc seems to mirror stuff often expoused by the anti kid med camp who actually don't have kids on meds, don't have any close contact with kids on meds and is based on heresay from old experiences with meds when there was very little idea re appropriate dosages etc so kids/people did seem to turn into zombies when medicated and yes lose their 'spark', the bit of them that made them unique and so on. We have come a long long way though in this regard from those initial days and people just don't seem to understand this. Not saying all meds are great for all people and it is such an individual response in this area but often they are all tainted by preconceived ideas.

This post has been edited by Mumsyto2: 11/04/2012, 10:31 PM

[Cat©]

I'm a bit on the fence. I would appreciate anything that could make DS's life better and mine more relaxed, however I'm terrified of most medications after some disatrous results early on.

One of mine is still medicated, and without it becomes a stressed aggressive unmanagable darling (not), so for that Im grateful.

I really need to medicate two others of mine but Im just so terrified I havent.......hopefully they will come out with some better options for people like me in the future. Some not so scary medications (although I'm sure there are some out there now but Im just too scared to try).

This post has been edited by Cat©: 11/04/2012, 07:41 PM

[Mumsyto2]

I doubt they will develop a medication which can cure ASD, at least any time soon.

I suspect they are looking at treating 'side effects' of ASD (not the exact right term, maybe 'specific barriers' is a better term) to help people become more functional.

This is correct. It is being looked at as a therapy not a cure. In this case medication is being targeted as the therapy. i think it would also be naive to think it would be a magic pill in that it will be a one stop shop. I imagine all the other relevant therapies would still be required, it would not replace early intervention, behavioural therapies etc and that it's purpose would be solely to increase function. Also a bonus would most likely be that it would make the person more 'receptive' to the adjunct therapies which would be great.

[ZombieMum]

Thanks for posting Mumsyto2, I am quite excited to read about this and it's made my day brighter.

ChickenNuggets, I know you're trying to post about the right thing - but really, you are very inexperienced in the world of both ASD and Medication, so I understand your opinion is somewhat misguided and uneducated.
I mean no offence with this and am having trouble wording it right myself. I can imagine your views will change one you have travelled further along this journey and realise there are problems with ASD that require medication.

Cat, I am excited on your behalf. I hope your family can benefit from this...however long it takes.

[bluecardigans]

Thanks for posting DS takes medication mainly for aggression. We have had terrible weight gain though, he went from 25 to 45 kg in six months We tried decreasing the offending medication, but the aggression and self injurious behaviour went through the roof. We were all carrying so many injuries we had no choice but to put the dose back up.

It would be fantastic if there was a medication as effective without the side effects.

[sueb31]

You may have all seen it, but this UK Autism research website is a good resource for looking at the available evidence for all forms of treatments.
http://www.researchautism.net/autism_treat...eticallist.ikml

You have to click through a few screens to get to the details.

Sue

[ChickenNuggets]

ChickenNuggets, I know you're trying to post about the right thing - but really, you are very inexperienced in the world of both ASD and Medication, so I understand your opinion is somewhat misguided and uneducated.
I mean no offence with this and am having trouble wording it right myself. I can imagine your views will change one you have travelled further along this journey and realise there are problems with ASD that require medication.

My bold - this highlights where we're misunderstanding each other - I feel you're insinuating that these problems WILL arise for my child.

This article probably explains my thoughts, and what I'm trying to say, to some degree:

http://lostandtired.com/2011/07/16/the-mos...take-in-autism/

Of course I'm aware that they are a harsh reality for many families. I'm not blind to this - but Autism isn't new to me, I just didn't have a name for it before..... I have lived for near on 27 years as a woman with AS. At no point was I medicated, nor did my parents consider that my behaviours need medicating. This is where I base my opinions... for my family... based on my experience.

If my DD is to follow in my footsteps, and "escape relatively unscathed" then I see no need to medicate her. I understand that yes, there is more than a small chance she will cope differently, but in the event that she is effected in similar ways to me then no - I will not be medicating her. Sure it's hard at times, but my personal preference is to explore other avenues, being that these worked for myself .... and that she's a lot like me as a child.

You can't paint all people with ASD with the same brush. As I said right from the start in MY experience, and MY situation, I would not feel comfortable with the risks/possible side effects of any new medication. As for what happens if things change, or if things were different - sure, I'm open to the idea.

I'm not saying I'm anti-meds, or that they're a bad idea, or that nobody should medicate their ASD child, but as far as MY child goes, I would think long and hard, because OUR circumstances are not the same as everyone elses. In the event that her behaviour/struggles reach a point that my way isn't working - I'll be off like a shot to the GP/Psych/Paed to have a script written up. No hesitation.

[UpsyDaisy]

I also think it wonderful that some evidence based research is being done in this area.

I'm still confused a little by this statement:

The ultimate goal is to facilitate the development of medications to treat ASDs.

What do they mean by medications to "treat' ASDs. Do they mean a medication to 'cure' ASD or to treat the underlying symtoms of ASD or to improve the medications already available for children/adults with ASD, or find a one fits all medication to treat ASD in general. I find this article isn't clear enough for me, to respond beyond what I've already stated, as it isn't clear enough to me "exactly" what they mean by "medications to treat ASDs".

FWIW - I think you've been a little to hard on ChickenNuggets. I'm informed enough and have been doing it long enough to understand ASD and that it is a spectrum. I took all her comments to mean her statement refered to "her and her child only" and wasn't mean't to be a generalisation. Disclaimer - This is just my opinion based on how I personally read her comments. Thanks

This post has been edited by UpsyDaisy: 12/04/2012, 01:09 PM

[UpsyDaisy]

I've found this information from a link from facebook. It appears to be a newspaper, so obviously not a published journal or peer reviewed journal article, but it kind of reminded me of the OP's link. Definitely interesting and worth the quick read.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/dailydose/201...gvIM/index.html

ETA - Ok, the link does say the study was published in a journal. My bad LOL.

This post has been edited by UpsyDaisy: 12/04/2012, 08:24 PM