Medication for ASD Children

[bed32]

Is it common for ASD children to be prescribed medication?

 

I must say this has not been suggested for our son - but then there is no one involved with him at the moment who could make a recommendation. I am also prejudiced against drugs - that stems from what I have seen as over prescription of inappropriate anti-depressants. I would take a lot of convincing that this is an appropriate solution for a child (as opposed to adults who have a much better understanding of their condition)

 

Given that a lot of his problems stem from anxiety (there is a suggestion that he has an anxiety disorder but not diagnosed), I was wondering if some form of medication might just take the edge off that and allow him to progress in other areas of life.

[smileyK]

I've just started an anti-depressant for anxiety disorder only been few weeks but so far so good have been on quite few anti-depressants over the years since my early teens! I wouldn't say we have better understanding over our condition as an adult just learn to grow to knowledgable to accept and if have late diagnosis seems to have just same level of understanding /knowledge as a child not knowing! Anxiety disorder was affecting my mood pattern! XKLX

[JeanneA]

Hi bed32 I do think that sometimes particularly when our children are very anxious, a medication needs to be tried. So if I were you I would ask your GP, explain your son is extremely anxious and would an anti-depressant or something similar help.

 

Hi smiley glad to hear your new anti-depressants seem to be helping with your anxiety issues, could I ask which anti-depressant you are now taking?

[bed32]

What I was trying to say is that I think that more mature or self-aware people will be more able to assess the effectiveness of any medication, and notice any side-effects. The idea of trying to decide whether a particular dose of a particular drug was appropriate for our son, and whether there were any side effects, seems very difficult to me.

[Sally44]

I did not allow my son to have any medication UNTIL he was in a school, indeed the only school, that could meet his needs. If his anxiety continued, which it did, due to OCD - I agreed for him to be put on medication as long as the understanding was that once his anxiety was reduced that he would receive therapy [CBT or similar] for the basis of his anxiety and his thought processes and behaviours that produced.

 

My son is on quite a high dose [so I am told] of Sertraline for his OCD 'thoughts' obsessions and compulsions.