SSRIs and Autism.

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Recently I was put on Sertraline 50mg (now I am on 100mg) for OCD. I have been on Olanzapine for four years and Amisulpride for about 6 months (both for schizophrenia). I have read some studies that SSRIs can help with certain elements of autism. Now I am not supporting drugging autistics up with meds at all, but I am just wondering, seeing as I'm on it now (for the OCD).

I have panic attacks / violent outbursts due to autism (usually in response to sensory overload or someone touching me unexpectedly) and I don't know if there is any chance of these improving on Sertraline.

What are your thoughts?

I tend not to react well to anti-depressants in general....one I tried just didn't work and the other two, prozac and wellbutrin both caused bad side effects and worse symptoms.

Did you tell your doctor or whoever prescribed the medication for you about your panic attacks? I believe they can be treated with different medication.

Like you I am on Sertraline. Also, initially I was on 50mg and now on 100mg. Mine was supposedly to help with anxiety. I haven't found they have helped at all with AS symptoms, barely anything yet with anxiety, although I have been told that increased dose still takes a few weeks to kick in. I also haven't found it has helped with OCD-like obsessional behaviours, such as particular plates having to be in one exact place, colour co-ordinating/matching clothes pegs, certain things having to be in certain places. I also had a meltdown since I've been on them, I usually have shutdowns or avoidance, but this was a highly stressful situation that triggered the meltdown.

She knows about them but she won't give me PRN benzodiazepines because she is concerned about them interacting with my antipsychotics to cause excessive sedation, and she also doesn't like prescribing benzos. As for the other anxiety meds out there (non-benzodiazepine and non-antidepressant types), I prefer to try the SSRIs first. Besides I'm already on three psychiatric and two non-psychiatric medications, so adding a sixth would increase the probability of interactions and increased side-effects.

I am going to be assessed by a psychologist soon and my occupational therapist is trying to help me with the anxiety and panic attacks.

I personally feel that most of these psych meds actually make people sick or sicker over the longer term. They are vile things that I avoid like the plague!

Other things I avoid (as I find it helps me to do so in one way or another) are gluten grains (wheat, rye, barley), processed foods with additives or E numbers in, most medications (except the occasional painkiller), drugs and cows milk dairy (mostly...i eat it very rarely but usually stick with goats instead).

A lot of my so called anxiety symptoms disappeared when I stopped eating wheat and consuming cows milk dairy, including all my stomach upsets/pain etc...which were put down to mental health issues. Funny I don't get them if i don't consume gluten at all!

Make sure your symptoms really are anxiety related before you let them medicate you too much.

I'm on an SSRI, Cipralex, and they calm down my meltdowns A LOT. I took myself off the medication at the beginning of this school year due to financial reasons, only to find that I was starting to meltdown again every day. I didn't realize how well much the medication had been helping with that until I came off them. I put myself back on them, and now my meltdowns are gone back down again.

Well I'm a Pharmacology student and I know that there are a lot of psych meds out there that really do help people and make them better. Yes, there are meds that make people very ill (like me when I went on Clozapine - I will never go back on that), but a good percentage of people don't get severe side-effects. The only side-effect I get from Olanzapine is tiredness and I don't get any side-effects from Amisulpride. Sertraline makes me feel dizzy sometimes, but only when the dose is increased.

It all depends on the patient and the medication. I know some who take 5mg of Olanzapine and are extremely sedated, yet there are others (including me) who did/do quite well on 20mg Olanzapine (although in all honesty I put on 13kg on it, but then I was underweight to begin with and a healthy weight now).

I just don't like it when people say "all psych meds are bad and shouldn't be used" because that is not true; I've seen people's lives being drastically improved by them (I went from being in a secure unit on 2 to 1 nursing to now being in uni due to antipsychotic treatment, and there are many others) You could say "amphotericin is bad and shouldn't be used" lol!

I used to be on SSRIs for depression. I was chronically depressed and SSRIs helped relieve the depression so I could enjoy life again. The side effects were annoying, such as a lower sex drive, larger appetite and I was sleepy all the time. But I kind of wasn't as worried about the side effects as much as the depression. I don't think it affected me any differently because of my AS.

I'm on 50 mg of Sertraline. My doctor wanted to go up to 100, but the time I actually took 100 in one day, it was an uncomfortable experience.

I've tried other anti-depressants but the results were not good in each case, but in each case I titrated up to a "normal" dosage. Staying at 50 mg on Zoloft has eased up a lot of my anxiety.

I'm on 20mg of Lexapro and tend to be non-functional when I don't take it. I'm also on 3mg of klonapin. both of those prescriptions were for depression/anxiety rather than aspergers, but seeing as anxiety and depression are the main negative results of my aspergers it makes sense.

Outside of Neurontin and Lyrica, treatment with any other medication besides benzodiazepines have been entirely ineffective for my different anxiety issues (GAD with panic disorder and chronic acute anxiety (I have no clue if the latter is pretty much the same as GAD, so ...), with neurontin only effective when delivered at the dosage of 3600mg in one dose, kind of the same deal with Lyrica, although I can attain mild relief from 300mg twice a day, not just a single high dose. Well, opiods are not prescribed for anxiety relief even with the potential.for exceptional relief, but that is generally beyond irresponsible even if it were last resort.

SSRI's are considered to be less effective than the TCA's and MAOI's, but they are definitely the safer alternative in most cases, due to potential side-effects and drug interactions. It's a little ... unsettling she would be averse to at least providing you a one month supply of say, sixty lower dose benzos PRN. If only to help you along while the possible reduction of anxiety through the AD to take full effect. Just lime Freeside, why wait? The opportunity to have sure-fire reduction of anxiety while awaiting significant clinical response from the AD would have no negative repurcussions, heck benzodiazepines are pretty much the safest medications out there, and it has been extensively shown that benzos carry a low-risk of abuse when one is in genuine need and there could be an INCREASE in energy due to the physical strain excessive anxiety has on one's body.

I suppose that you'll have to wait and see, SSRI's are effective for some, not so much for others, but if you trust her, and her mind is made up, well, bit of of a waiting game.

Personally, I think that benzodiazepines are the way to go. You have a condition in which benzodiazepines are usually (through my extensive time spent with schizophrenics) a given, and if prone to panic attacks and violent outbursts, the too sedated sounda very much like a feeble excuse. Im not somebody who has psychosis and while a lot of speculation has gone about if I am autistic (including an aspie telling me that I display significant symptoms of aspergers, a person that dealt with me all of the time), so my overly long opinion is what it is, but to try you out on a safe medication that could curb a potential disaster, well, I might not be alive if not for benzodiazepine treatmeny. Good luck. a me.

I'm on citalopram but also stemetil to help with the psychosis that can occur with people on the autistic spectrum when on ssri. As I couldn't take the ssri on its own it screwed me up but both together I am a lot better

They aren't all anxiety symptoms since I have depression as well...either way I am not taking any pharmaceuticals currently, and yeah I certainly hope I do not end up in a situation where I cannot not let them and I certainly don't plan on it.

I'm on an SSRI, Citalopram.
I find it helps to stop the worst of the anxiety/depression symptoms, enough for me to function every day.
I've been on other ones in the past that haven't worked so well.

I'm not able to clearly separate things into specific categories of OCD, depression, and AS. Much of it all blends together. I will say that anti-depressants have helped me both for depression and OCD related anxiety. Have tried a number of them. Have had most success with a combination of Cymbalta (morning) and amitriptyline (evening). That is the current combo.