Anyone been prescribed this medication for self harming?

Post Reply New Topic

I've found out the name of the drug my son is going to have its called: Naltrexone. It's used for treating other conditions primarily but can be used to treat people with autism who self harm.

Has anyone been prescribed this before, would love to hear from you.

Random question: Is it intentional self-harming or accidental self-harming?

Yes, I was prescribed Revia (Naltrexone). I had no side effects, but it did not affect my self-injury either.

It's usually used for addictions, and blocks the natural endorphins in your body as well. (These are the substances responsible for the "runner's high", for the good-tired feeling after a workout, and for the euphoria a woman usually feels after giving birth. They are also why some people who are injured in an accident may not feel their injuries until they have had a chance to calm down. These are also called endogenous opioids, and are released during times of stress and pain.) Naltrexone is prescribed for people who are addicted to morphine, heroin, or alcohol, or narcotic pain relievers in general. It prevents these substances from creating a "high".

Your doctor's likely theory is that your son is self-injuring to deliberately trigger natural endorphins, much like the runner's high (and, yes, people actually do get addicted to exercise--absent any eating disorder--for that exact reason). Whether this is the case or not is anybody's guess. Your son may have an atypical sensory system that does not respond to pain in the way that most people's does. In that case, his self-injury may not be triggering that response in the first place, especially if the injury is minor. My own sensory system is pretty strange: I do not perceive many types of pain as aversive. A bruise or a cut in the skin simply does not register as a problem. I feel the pain, but it is a neutral stimulus. However, some other types of pain, such as headache or menstrual cramps, can overload my senses to the point that I lose the ability to do anything but lie down and try to recover.

For me, self-injury was a way of forcing my mind and body into "emergency mode" (I presume, activating the sympathetic nervous system) so that I could deal with things which would otherwise have been beyond my ability. This was because I was in a situation where I did not have the accommodations I needed, being expected to do things which I was not yet ready to do. Despite my lack of an emotional response to pain, I found it mildly effective, in a "better than nothing" sort of way. Of course, it was not a long-term solution. Constantly being in emergency mode is a great way to trigger burnout, which is exactly what happened.

I was given the medication when I was in the hospital, and took it for a while. It did not change matters because it did not get to the root of the problem. I was re-hospitalized a short time later. I still used every strategy I could find to try to keep myself functioning well enough to stay fed, housed, and occasionally employed--including self-injury. After a while, I was unable to afford medication, and this was a blessing in disguise because I had been heavily overmedicated.

Not until I started receiving some assistance and learning about how to deal with my autistic traits did the self-injury rate decline. Currently, it is a fairly rare occurrence, and never needs medical attention; so I no longer consider it to be a problem.

Thanks so much for your replies, most interesting reading. My son does self harm on purpose yes.

The medication starts this Friday so we will see if it helps or not. Could you tell how long it takes before you notice any difference in yourself Callista?

As I've said, the medication did not change anything for me, so I never noticed any difference at all. From what I can tell, if there is an effect, it is probably quite rapid because the medication acts quickly to block opioid receptors. The only question then is whether the person taking the medication will respond to this change by changing their behavior. I did not, because whatever the medication did to me, it didn't change the way self-injury affected me.

Thanks very much callista.

Your son may be self-harming as a stim or just to feel something. Some people on the spectrum (including myself) have hyposensitivities and they might crave a certain level stimulation that they can't feel under normal circumstances. I know I burn myself mildly just to compensate for the fact that I don't feel things that much and I need more.

If it were simply for sensory stimulation and not for an actual high the medication probably won't help.

Yeah. I guess they figure it's worth a try, though. I mean, if the kid is distressed by his self-injury, or at risk of hurting himself seriously, then you have to try something.

I believe the most effective approach for self-injury is to find out what purpose it serves, and then find a safe way to fulfill that same purpose. In my case, it meant learning my own limits and learning to ask for help so that I no longer needed to hurt myself to force myself into overdrive. This sort of medication would only work if the injury is a deliberate attempt to seek the endorphin high produced by injury, and as far as I can tell, that is true only for a minority of self-injury cases. However, it is true for some, and the medication works better than placebo in clinical trials; so if that's your doctor's theory about why your kid is hurting himself, then I'll put it in the "worth a try" category.

There are two long-term issues with this medication: First, liver damage--If you have any kind of liver disease, you have to be very careful with this medication because it can worsen it. I am assuming that is not true for a child being given a presumably low dose. Second, it will block opioid receptors, so in the long run it makes them more sensitive, meaning you can achieve that pleasurable runner's-high sensation more quickly. That could be a problem even if the medication works, if in the meantime there weren't some sort of educational/therapeutic response to the self-injury, to find a different way for the person to fulfill whatever need he is trying to fulfill by hurting himself.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. If I and your doctor disagree, your doctor is probably right. I know a lot of random stuff, but I haven't got the experience a doctor has, and sometimes that makes all the difference.

I can't help but wonder, wouldn't long term use of that drug prevent one from feeling any pleasure even from healthy activities? I mean I doubt it only blocks the natural endorphins or whatever that come from self harm. I mean if it helps the self harm that is a good thing but I have to wonder about that and that is certainly a factor to be considered if it would do that because I imagine if one felt no pleasure from anything they might then self harm out of frustration.

But I am no expert just a thought based on what I've read so far, but maybe that's not a side effect......don't know exactly how it works since its not a drug I've heard of.

I know. That bothers me, too. I don't know whether that might be the case, because at the time I was taking it, I was depressed and unable to feel pleasure anyway. But I guess it's something to ask about.

It doesn't seem to block dopamine, though; so you'd still get the "reward" feeling; just not the endorphin rush. I wonder whether it makes exercise less rewarding. I bet it does. I can get a runner's high from just walking briskly, if I'm comfortable (being too hot or too cold will spoil it for me, unfortunately). It makes you want to laugh out loud because life is so wonderful--things feel more peaceful, more colorful. Unfortunately (once again) when I was depressed, exercise seemed entirely impossible for me and I slowed down--walked slowly, did things slowly, often just stayed in my room. So I don't know if it blocked the enjoyment I get when I exercise.

http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2012 ... viors.html

Thanks for putting that link up