Hi everyone,
:) I've just joined up and have read many interesting posts. I live in Australia and have a son with Autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy and ADHD... I've done and tried many different treatment options with him and some have helped and others have done nothing. He is currently medicated with four meds and I hate giving them to him but it seems to be the only way for him to be able to fit into society, school etc. He takes Epilim 200mcg (sodium valproate- i think this is called depakote in USA), Zyban 150mg (called Wellbutrin in USA), Cipramil 20mg (citalopram) and Ritalin 10mg. I've tried to take out Cipramil and Zyban a few times now but the side effects of the Ritalin without these meds is unbearable for him and everyone around him without those meds. Teary to the point of crying himself to sleep in the corner of the classroom, crying for no apparent reason, super obsessive.. and so on.
I've recently talked with a psychiatrist about changing cipramil, zyban and ritalin hopefully into one medication. As he needs the ritalin for behaviour management, but needs cipramil and zyban to offset the bad side effects of ritalin.. the psychiatrist has recommended Strattera.
Trouble is I know the combination of meds he is on now is working, so I'm scared to change it (why fix something that isn't broken), but after a recent growth spurt we've had to up the dosage of all the meds and I'm worried that taking such a cocktail of medications could cause some horrible long term side effects.
Has anyone here had any experience with Strattera?

The psychiatrist wants to take cipramil out and replace it with Strattera then gradually fade out zyban... (Is Zyban and Strattera going to be alright together??) I've asked the pyschiatrist all of these questions and even though he says it should be fine, who really knows .... I'm so nervous but so worried about long term use of so many meds.


Hope someone has some info on Strattera......I've read somewhere that it works on Amines... I know that my son is very sensitive to amines
I am currently looking into the feingold diet, I wish I had've tried this before the medications as it looks promising. I know my son reacts badly to chocolates (amines), fish oils (amines), soy (amines)... So maybe something that works on amines might help... Any info/support would be greatly appreciated... Thank you for reading

My son (ADHD/Asperger's) is currently on 60 mg of Stratera, and 1.5 mg of Tenix (.5 in the moring, 1 in the evening). It seems to be working well for him. Much better then other things we've tried.

If you're worried about changing, just remember one thing, you can always change back. I can understand the desire to reduce the number of medications, but is Strattera doesn't end up working you can go back to what was.

That is quite a cocktail of meds, but if it works it works.

Strattera is an alternate to Ritalin. It may be worth a try. The main thing the users here have found is that every person is unique in how they react to meds. It is difficult to predict what will happen to someone with a particular med. Straterra definately works for some people. You won't know if it works until you try. As lady lark said, you can always switch back.

There are quite a variety of alternative treatments out there for Autism. Including various diets; gluten free/ casein free (GFCF), Fiengold, specific carbohydrate diet, etc. Some theories on candida/yeast overgrowth issues. One organization that has conferences an info on these treatments is the "Defeat Autism Now" (DAN) organization.

Good luck.

We've been having good luck with Play Therapy too. Steven goes every other week, and, while playing, he is helped in how to deal with social situations, anger, his own rigidity, etc. It's nice because he seems much more willing to open up and talk if he's doing something, rather then just sitting and talking. It might be worth looking into.

Hi Lady Lark & MGDad,

thank you for your replies. That's true about being able to change back if it doesn't work. The only problem there is that we'll probably loose a few months finding out what works and doesn't. When I've taken out cipramil before it takes a while for the side effects of ritalin to show up but when it does it's really hard then it takes another few weeks after starting cipramil again to get things back to normal. I guess it just has to be that way. Unfortunately. The psychiatrist tells me that there has been more studies done in children for strattera and none done on Zyban in children. For the most part cipramil and zyban are adult medications... He says he'd feel more comfortable with strattera than zyban or cipramil. I guess I just have to trust him and try it. It might just be the magic bullet. It'd be great if strattera could take care of all the behavioural issues without the need for ritalin, zyban and cipramil. One med replacing three, that's what I wanted so I probably should give it a go.

I've tried the GFCF diet and it didn't work, and because he hated the food so much, (I mean everything, the bread, the biscuits, cakes everything) he always under ate and got very thin, and to no avail it really didn't help anything at all.
I tried the feingold diet too, but not in as much depth as I should've I was not looking at amines, salicylates just food additives. I've been thinking of trying again looking at it in detail.
I did the yeast thing too, again no real change.
The ABA was different, it gave the most results, (lasting results), I'm so glad I did that for 2 years...
The only reason he really needs these meds is stay calm, because nothing really helps his "autism" anyway. He is moderate to severe but has come a long way, he's doing better than I ever thought he would. He's 12 and has gone from being echolalic to being able to ask for anything he wants, and talk briefly about his thoughts.He started these meds when he was 6, so has been taking them for 6 years, he has bi yearly LFT (blood tests) to ensure that they're not harming his liver. I know that we can't do much more than that, but at times I feel like I'm slowly poisoning him with this cocktail of meds.
Thanks for you your replies....

Lady lark, what is Tenix? is it a stimulant or antidepressant? What's the active ingredient in it?

Sorry, my lousy spelling. It's Tenex, or guanfacine.
It's origional intent was to treat high blood pressure. It's been known to have a calming effect, and it seems to help in reducing Steven's anxiety. Since alot of his outbursts are comming from the sensoray overload (due to the Asperger's) it's nice to have something. It's main side effect is drousyness, which is why he takes 1mg at night, and .5 mg in the morning. He takes the Strattera for his attention problems, and his hyperness.

There's a Strattera sub forum somewhere on this site that contains a ton of info. Too lazy to find it right now... the Strattera must be wearing off ;)

It's um....that way. ;)

There are quite a variety of alternative treatments out there for Autism. Including various diets; gluten free/ casein free (GFCF), Fiengold, specific carbohydrate diet, etc. Some theories on candida/yeast overgrowth issues. One organization that has conferences an info on these treatments is the "Defeat Autism Now" (DAN) organization.I'd recommend reading this, which details someone's experiences as a conference speaker and parent of two autistic children, and who tried many treatments:

http://www.autism-watch.org/about/bio2.shtml

I'd also reccomend this, which explains a few of the (many) reasons for why Defeat Autism Now and Cure Autism Now are held in contempt by many individuals who have ASD's (including myself):

http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/dontcure.html

This site details Michelle Dawson's struggles and experiences with Autism Society Canada:

http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_02.html

Thanks for the link Peter Mac,

The first article is good, but the main flaw in his premise is the same flaw in the Pro-DAN argument. He is saying the treatments don't work because they did not work on his child. So, he is basing his opinion on anecdotal evidence. To make things worse, he is basing his argument on anecdotal evidence from a single patient.

In addition, based on the current beliefs on why the GFCF diet works, it is not suprising that his child did not react to the waffle when he ate it. Since it is accepted that the "leaky gut" problem can be healed after a time of avoiding the appropriate foods. and/or the food sensitivity will be decreased after the food has been eliminated from the diet for a time. The same goes with the supplements. Supplements are not necessarily necessary "forever", they are just needed to get everything lined up again. So, he has many problems with his argument. Firstly, he relys on a single anecdotal story. Secondly, his single story does not even dispute any of the DAN treatment expectations.

While at first glance it seems like a strong argument against DAN treatments, especially since it is written by an MD, when you analyze the argument it is actually very weak.

The second link, basically is a guy arguing that being diagnosed with Autism just means that you are "different" instead of having a "disease". There are some people who feel that being diagnosed with ADHD just means you are different. I am not in that "camp" of beliefs, so that is all I will say about that one.

I did not read all of the stuff in the third link, but again it seems to be making the point that autistics are not impaired, just different.

Anyway, thanks again for the links.

Hi again,
sorry I've been MIA. Computer problems then had so much to catch up on when I was finally up and running again.

Lady Lark: Thanks for the official name of that med. I'll ask the psychiatrist about it when i see him soon.

pedalpounder: Yes, I'll make my way over to that forum... I would really like to know how Strattera works before I start my son on it.
I had tried him on concerta seems to give him a stomach ache... So it looks as though it'll be ritallin for him.


PeterMac: Hi PeterMac thank you for the links. I felt about like the parent in the first one. The diets are sooooo restrictive and so much hard work and seem to alienate him from everyone and everything even further. Having to carry around the kitchen with you everywhere you go is so hard.
However I do know one family which the GF/CF diet did work for so I won't knock it, but it really didn't work for us. It made life a lot harder and finances were definately more stretched than ever. I've recently started trying the feingold diet again and I am once again feeling that overwhelming sense of "My God what can I feed him?" The supermarket seems to have Nothing to eat!! ;) :D I don't know how much longer I can do this for, but I must say I'm seeing some improvements but still no where near the amount of improvement for the extreme inconvenience and expense it comes with. Nevertheless we'll keep going for a while and see how things go. :confused:

The second link, basically is a guy arguing that being diagnosed with Autism just means that you are "different" instead of having a "disease".
I agree that the belief that autism just means being different is not always true. In the high functioning individual that maybe the case, but in the more severe cases where the person is unable to ever take care of their own needs (like my son), surely that would have to be a disability.

All I know is that life is so hard with these problems and it feels like no matter what you do it always feels like your not doing enough, or your doing the wrong thing as a parent. I so desperately want to help my son, get him off all these drugs and live like everyone elso. Unfortunately that's not meant to be... I will do my research on Strattera, and really hope that I can get three meds condensed into one (Strattera)...

Thanks to everyone who replied, and gave advice and support it all makes a difference and I appreciate it.....:)

We started Steven on Concerta and it worked, for a time. By the time we were changing it all it was doing was giving him headaches. Then off to Adderal...no og there. A brief stint with Daytrana (the patch) and that, for us, was a total bust. The Strattera taken with the Tenex seems to do the trick, for now. I'm sure we'll have to tweak it again in the future.
*sigh*