Reuters announces UPDATE 1-FDA OKs Abilify for child autism irritablity. It has been approved to treat aggression, self injury, tantrums and that the drug should be indicated as part of treatment program.
Before hailing Abilify as the new "it" drug for autism, recognize that medication can help and hurt the symptoms of autism. Experts urge parents to target behaviors. Calculate how often and how intrusive the behavior can be.
The issue of obsessions are addressed in a myriad of ways, but oftentimes, a different approach is taken with autistic children. Currently, there are theories that using the obsession works to extinguish it.
Being an "educated consumer" is the operative motto when utilizing drug therapy for autism. One size does not fit all, and sometimes the drug can incite new symptoms. Parents are advised to take data and proceed with caution.
Comments
Thanks for the article! Your first link doesn't work for me though.
Thanks Julie, I repaired the link.
Medications like this shouldn't be used on children, or anyone for that matter. Marijuana can treat aggression and is much much safer than any anti-psychotic medication. Although it's important to look at the underlying reasons for the aggression and tantrums. I have Autism. Over stimulation can cause me to have a meltdown. So there many times I just need to be by my self and away from people.
If you deal with the underlying causes, then medications are not as much of a consideration. If you still have some issue, a marijuana cookie will fix that.
But, I imagine that many parents will put their kid on Abilify. Giving your kid a pill is far simpler than trying to understand what makes your kid tick. And of course, it's FDA approved and the doctor says it's good, so it has to be good right? I can't think of ANY good reason to give autistic kids meds. Especially if you live in a state with Medical Marijuana laws.
I am glad you are giving good, practical cousnel on this. Abilify caused my niece (who was 15 and 16 at the time) to have muscle tremors that are now a permanent part of her. She.. twitches. And meds to fix that haven't worked. Not saying everyone will get this but keep in mind the side effects!
This article has now made me change my opinion about legalizing marijuana. Legalize it now! It is much less dangerous than what the FDA is reccomending. The FDA reccomends all of these children take these dangerous psycotropic drugs like candy. This is an outrage. Almost all of the foster kids in Texas are on psycotropic drugs. When an expert was asked about why this was, he said it was because they have a bad "gene pool" What an insult to this unfortunate children. This borders on evil. Wake up Texas! It is time to cut to the core proble of autism not just medicate it because you don't know what else to do. I would love to see the double blind study on Abilify with the normal children included. Of course no parents would volunteer their child for this, but when alternative health care does a study the other side would demand it. Example who would volunteer their normal child to be in a control group for an IV chelation study. Abilify should only be used sparingly as a last resort.
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