Autism/Medications

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Expert: - 3/12/2008


Question
I was asked if my 16 yr old autistic son could start taking the medication risperdol. And if not they would like to try him on depakote or tegretol. I recently asked they take him off something similiar to risperdol but w/time release capsules. My son chews on his medication which were capsules, and the side effects to this were: he could not control his urination he was having accidents very frequently and was pacing and figiting. His urinating was out of control. And he would vomit immediately after taking his meds. Just wondering if you know of something that works. Need your help thanks!

Answer
Hi Melanie,

I'm not a doctor or a health care professional so I cannot answer questions about meds. While I'm familiar with the fact that medications like risperdal are sometimes used to treat some symptoms of autism, I cannot help you with this as I don't know about the pros and cons of these drugs and their side effects (and what can be done about them). Please talk to your doctor about the side effects your son is having (if necessary please go and see another doctor to get a second oppinion).  
I'm really sorry I cannot help you with this.
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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