Comorbid conditions - Mood and ASD

Post Reply New Topic

Does anyone have a child with a mood disorder and ASD?

The two have so many similar traits, yet many are very opposite. My son has PDD-NOS and Mood Disorder-NOS. Right now he is going through a phase where he is very talkative, aggressive, easily frustrated, super happy, then super mad, and anxious. Right now I see Mood Disorder-NOS ("NOS" makes me laugh every time...) and not ASD. I feel like I have to change the way I handle him when he is going through a phase like this. It is similar to mania, that's the only way I can describe it.

Does anyone else's child with similar comorbid diagnosis have any advise on how to deal with these types of symptoms?

One of our sons was dxed with Dysthymia (chronic low grade depression), and was also experiencing what they thought were manic swings. For him it actually turned out to be stress/ASD/SPD related rather than actual mood disorder. We kept a journal of his moods, meltdowns, activities etc. for several months in order to figure this out. We discovered that the "manic" phases seemed to be related to sensory understimulation (talking, talking, talking, destroying things, literally bouncing off the walls), and that the "depression" was related to school stress. Since then we have been able to make adjustments to his "sensory diet", as well as various accommodation at school to help his mood be more balanced and outlook more healthy.

Both of our sons are also dxed with GAD and ADD comorbid as well (the ADD we question, but the GAD seems apt).

I would recommend keeping a log of his moods, if you haven't already done so. It really helps to be able to track patterns and trends in their behavior that you couldn't otherwise sort out. Consulting with an OT, or reading a good book on Sensory Processing Disorder may also be helpful (in case his mood swings are sensory related).

DS has a co morbid DX (depending on who I am talking with ). It has been explained to me that it is very difficult to treat kids like this because what is appropriate for one DX is inappropriate for the other DX, depending on the issue.

My DS. manic type behaviors were always at the same time as a medicine reaction. So, I don't believe I have seen mania the way that others have. That said, jumping on the trampoline was always great, and I let him have plenty of whatever would calm him down - So long as it wasn't harmful, I didn't care.

Funny, I really knew so little about AS when I first started being concerned about DS. He was cuddly and made eye contact, so I didn't give it another thought. I immediately bought into the mood disorder dx. However, the more I learn about AS and the longer I spend here - the more DS sounds like these kids. He doesn't sound as much like the kids on the BP forum.