Aggression, diagnoses and meds (was: Re: Needing to Vent)

[Guest guest]

Zyprexa and other atypical antipsychotics do wonders for some ASD kids and

horrors for others. I know of at least one autistic teen who became *more*

aggressive on Zyprexa rather than less. Some people also even hallucinate

when they take antipsychotics, paradoxically (people who hav enever

hallucinated before, I mean). I have never been on Zyprexa. The only

atypical antipsychotic I've been on is Risperdal, and that worked well the

first two weeks then stopped working and the side effects didn't stop, so I

quit after 2 1/2 months. As a side note, aggression does not always mean

bipolar (I see that suspection being voiced often on this list). Bipolar

requires unexplained mood swings from manic to depressive or vise versa.

Aggression can be a sign of many different disorders, and some people with

ASDs without any secondary diagnoses are very emotionally unstable and

impulsive. In the Netherlands, there is even a diagnostic category for

autistic features with emotinal lability and psychotic-like features, called

McDD (in the DSM, kids with McDD are classified as PDD-NOS). But then agian,

I've seen many people diangosed with Asperger's or classic autism have these

symptoms, including myself (okay I don't threaten to kill people, but I

wouldn't be surprised if I did as a child, and I'm certain that I used to be

suicidal - okay I was last Nov and this was after at least five years, but I

made suicidal threats when I was in my early to mid teens, too). IN any

case, this sort of behaviro needs a thorough evaluation by preferably a team

of skilled and knowledgeable professionals, and meds should not be

carelessly tried. For one thing, clinical depression can manifest as

aggression in children, too, and atypical antipsychotics may make that

worse.

Astrid

astrid@...

http://www.astridvanwoerkom.com/

Re: Needing to Vent

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