Hey its good to hear that the psychiatrist specialises in this area, I guess if he feels it right for your son to be on the medication then theres little danger. Not many of these psychologists around in England, though I seem to live in an area that has a lot of people with Autism, a lot of parents are still not informed or helped to understand what their child is dealing with. It makes the struggle harder for both the parent and the child.
Good to hear he has learned coping mechanisms, its half the battle.
My son will be 7 in a few days and has Asperger's. He is on 10 mg Ritalin 2x/day. We have seen a tremendous improvement.
I have a cousin who is very heavily involved in all aspects of autism - she is the Director of a private company that provides in-class aides to the public school system for children on the autistic spectrum in the SF Bay Area. Her son is highly functioning autistic, and she has dedicated her life to the treatment, causes, laws governing treatment, and advocacy for autistic spectrum disorders. When I told her that Ian, (my son) was on Ritalin, she sent me the e-mail quoted below. I have NOT had a chance to check this information out, but I am posting it so you can check it out yourself. Let me know what you think. Feel free to pm me if you would like.
Regards,
D
"I want to respond again to your question about meds and let you know you should call the autism research institute by bernard rimland m.d., they are in san diego, you can probably find them online. They do whats called the "dan" protocal that trains doctors all over the country in the ONLY effective meds for children with autism and aspergers. Their data shows that ritalin in studies made childrens symptoms worse. Just an fyi, they aer the leaders and far more skilled then pediatricians and they have data behind their work specific to this population. They show what meds are effective and their studies and data on those meds are used to train other physicians."
