This is my first post here so I'll give a little background on my son who was diagnosed a few years ago as PDD-NOS. He's basically a high functioning autistic 11 year old of above average intelligence. His IQ scores for logic and reasoning are off the chart. He sometimes is classified as having Asperger's but that really hasn't been a good fit. The doctor that diagnosed him found him to be one of the most unique cases she has seen. He doesn't really fit into any of the categories properly. His symptoms go back to infancy.
He was mostly an A student in grade school because his teachers made exceptions for him and mostly graded him on test results. However he isn't capable of completing class room assignments on his own and performing in other school functions.
The older he get the worse he seems to be getting. If it were not for his obcessibe behaviors it would be hard to tell he had a problem. He becommes obscessed with words and with often say or repeat the word to no end. Sometimes he keeps the word going for up to 6 months or more. The word is often the only response he gives to questions. He also will only speak with accents and weird distorded voices. He seems to have a gift of picking up an accent. His true voice only comes out sometimes at bed time before he falls asleep. He also obcessivly makes certain sound and noises.
I believe his mother suffers from depression, perhaps even type II bipolar. I've read some indications there may be some correlations with parental depression and PDD.
I've read some things about seratonin and Autism and that SSRI medications may be of benefit. Has anyone here had any experience, positive or negative, with the use of SSRIs on high functioning autistic children?
Bipolar runs in my family...Payne was dx BP before PDD - He takes Prozac and it has helped tremendously. He takes it 2 x a day (He has a VERY fast metabolism) He helped him w/ his anxiety w/ large groups, etc.Thanks for the reply.
I'd say my son's two biggest problems are anxiety and verbal obsesssions. Anxiety sets him off in a bad isolated state. Though that is probably true of most PDD cases. Anything that requires him to come out of his room seems to cause anxiety.
How old is your son?
I'd like to give it a try. I know there are mixed opinions on PDD and SSRIs. I'd like to find a doctor experienced with such issues. Perhaps a pediatric psychiatrist. Unfortunately, I seem to know about as much on the topic, which isn't much, as most doctors.
BP was a co-morbid of the PDD as was ADHD. He has been on the prozac for a while now. We have him see a ped. psychiatrist here (wonderful!!!wonderful man! - changed our lives!) If you're not careful anti-depressants CAN cause issues. We have Payne on mood stabilizer and anti-depressant (more of a anti-anxiety)[QUOTE=Payne's Mom]Bipolar runs in my family...Payne was dx BP before PDD - He takes Prozac and it has helped tremendously. He takes it 2 x a day (He has a VERY fast metabolism) He helped him w/ his anxiety w/ large groups, etc. [/QUOTE]
Aren't anti-depressants bad for bipolar patients or was the BP a misdiagnose? I thought they could trigger hypomania. The ex wife went on them for a while and she went extreme manic. I had also suspected she was a BP type II. I took them for a while after our separation and they helped me get by.
It took a while for my son to be diagnosed with PDD. When he was younger it seemed he was just a slow starter. Autism was brought up a few times but people that knew him mostly scoffed at the idea. Even I did. I was familiar with full blown Autism but I didn't know about the high functioning side. He did OK at school in the earlier years but each year it became more apparent something was wrong.
Strattera didn't work well for daniel at all. It made him ill at school. Daniel iq is in the 70's.Strattera is not an SSRI. I took it for a long time and it really helped with my inattentive ADD, but the hunger/nausea was too bad. I wouldn't be hungry at all, food would look awful for hours, then suddenly I'd be terribly hungry. And if I let my stomach get empty on the medicine, I'd get this horrible nausea that would send me to bed for an hour or so. It was a bad cycle.
My son is Asperger's, age 7 and high anxiety that is affecting his health (food and dental issues) so we are starting him on Zoloft this week. Wonder what results you've seen...