Wednesday, January 05, 2005
New Medications
We've been to see the psychiatrist three times in the last few weeks, once for a follow-up visit about Jason's medication, and twice with Timothy for an initial evaluation and treatment strategy.
Jason had been taking Tenex, a blood pressure medication that was supposed to help him settle down a bit. He'd been having a lot of trouble in school, talking too much in the classroom and getting aggressive on the playground. He stopped getting into trouble at school, but we didn't like the impact it had on him at home. He was no longer interested in interacting with us when he got home from school. All he wanted to do was sit watching TV and tracing pictures from books.
We've already tried Zoloft, and that didn't work out well either--he became very manic. He'd gotten through six months of kindergarten without a hitch, but once we put him on Zoloft he was in the principal's office 3 times in 7 days. This time the psychiatrist recommended trying the atypical antipsychotics. Specifically, he wanted to put Jason on Abilify. He said if it worked really well we'd see a significant decline in anxiety, better frustration tolerance, easier transitions, and less aggression. We're a week into it now, still much too soon to tell what it's really going to do for Jason.
As for Timothy, after hearing us describe his behavior and observing him, the psychiatrist said he probably has Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. That makes sense to me given the hours and hours Timothy will spend dropping crayons or rocks or cereal or anything else he can get his hands on onto the floor.
The medication of choice for OCD is SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). We've started Timothy on Zoloft now. In the first few days we (and his speech therapist, and grandma) have noticed significantly more eye contact. Hopefully that means that this is the right medication for him. The doctor said that response to SSRIs varies quite a bit from child to child and drug to drug, so we might have to try 4 or 5 SSRIs to find the right one.
Jason had been taking Tenex, a blood pressure medication that was supposed to help him settle down a bit. He'd been having a lot of trouble in school, talking too much in the classroom and getting aggressive on the playground. He stopped getting into trouble at school, but we didn't like the impact it had on him at home. He was no longer interested in interacting with us when he got home from school. All he wanted to do was sit watching TV and tracing pictures from books.
We've already tried Zoloft, and that didn't work out well either--he became very manic. He'd gotten through six months of kindergarten without a hitch, but once we put him on Zoloft he was in the principal's office 3 times in 7 days. This time the psychiatrist recommended trying the atypical antipsychotics. Specifically, he wanted to put Jason on Abilify. He said if it worked really well we'd see a significant decline in anxiety, better frustration tolerance, easier transitions, and less aggression. We're a week into it now, still much too soon to tell what it's really going to do for Jason.
As for Timothy, after hearing us describe his behavior and observing him, the psychiatrist said he probably has Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. That makes sense to me given the hours and hours Timothy will spend dropping crayons or rocks or cereal or anything else he can get his hands on onto the floor.
The medication of choice for OCD is SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). We've started Timothy on Zoloft now. In the first few days we (and his speech therapist, and grandma) have noticed significantly more eye contact. Hopefully that means that this is the right medication for him. The doctor said that response to SSRIs varies quite a bit from child to child and drug to drug, so we might have to try 4 or 5 SSRIs to find the right one.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Running away, following along
We went up to my in-law's vacation home in today to celebrate New Year's day. My mother-in-law and I went out for a walk with Timothy. Currently Timothy is obsessed with dropping rocks. He grabs handfuls of rocks and slowly dribbles them out of his hand onto the ground. Timothy kept wandering off into people's driveways and yards to find rocks. I'd have to go and fetch him. Sometimes I'd take him by the hand and lead him back to the sidewalk. Sometimes I'd just turn him in the right direction and pat him on the back to get him started.
A couple of times I told him to go follow Grandma. And he did. This was a surprise to both of us. Over the last year, Timothy has shown an increasing awareness of and interest in other people. Two years ago I don't believe he would have followed her.
As I thought about it I remembered instances with Jason. As a toddler and pre-schooler I used to take Jason on walks in the neighborhood after dinner. I had to be very vigilant to keep him from bolting away. Often, I had a lot of trouble getting to come home.
My therapist at the time kept telling me that if I would just start walking home, he'd follow me. I tried this on multiple occasions, and it rarely worked. Usually he would just ignore the fact that I was leaving. Sometimes he would run off in the opposite direction, leaving me to sprint back towards the playground in order to catch him before he reached the street.
During one of my parent's visits we went with them to the Seattle Aquarium. In the car on the way home from the aquarium, my mother commented about how frightening it was to take Jason into a public place. "When he runs off, he doesn't look back!"
That was before Jason had been diagnosed. In fact, before we realized that there were major issues with Jason's behavior. Since he was our first children, we didn't realize that his behavior was atypical.
Now I can see it as a typical behavior for a child with autism. People just aren't that interesting for children with autism. They are more likely to be drawn to things, and if the people around them don't follow along, that doesn't really matter.
It was really nice to see that today, at least some of the time, Timothy found going with Grandma to be more interesting than finding more rocks.
A couple of times I told him to go follow Grandma. And he did. This was a surprise to both of us. Over the last year, Timothy has shown an increasing awareness of and interest in other people. Two years ago I don't believe he would have followed her.
As I thought about it I remembered instances with Jason. As a toddler and pre-schooler I used to take Jason on walks in the neighborhood after dinner. I had to be very vigilant to keep him from bolting away. Often, I had a lot of trouble getting to come home.
My therapist at the time kept telling me that if I would just start walking home, he'd follow me. I tried this on multiple occasions, and it rarely worked. Usually he would just ignore the fact that I was leaving. Sometimes he would run off in the opposite direction, leaving me to sprint back towards the playground in order to catch him before he reached the street.
During one of my parent's visits we went with them to the Seattle Aquarium. In the car on the way home from the aquarium, my mother commented about how frightening it was to take Jason into a public place. "When he runs off, he doesn't look back!"
That was before Jason had been diagnosed. In fact, before we realized that there were major issues with Jason's behavior. Since he was our first children, we didn't realize that his behavior was atypical.
Now I can see it as a typical behavior for a child with autism. People just aren't that interesting for children with autism. They are more likely to be drawn to things, and if the people around them don't follow along, that doesn't really matter.
It was really nice to see that today, at least some of the time, Timothy found going with Grandma to be more interesting than finding more rocks.
