Tantrums, or are they?

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Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has figured thisout already. This has been going on for years and years and still I have no answer, or treatment for it. My 14 year old, non-verbal son with autism has tantrums "out of the blue", for no reason, no anticedent, and will even have these fits when he's doing a preferred activity. I've been taking data on them for the last two years or so, and don't see anything that sets them off. They are usually about 8 - 15 minutes long, so I don't think they are a head ache, though he will bite and growl, slap his face, howl into a pillow, curl up into a ball on the floor. When they are over he's happy as a clam again, so I rule out them being a seizure. He was on trilepal for a while, because I thought that maybe there was some problems caused by the multifocal epileptiform discharges that showed up on his EEG when he was 8 years old, but it made no difference, in fact, he seemed the same when he was off this medication, so I'm not sure it did anything....maybe because they aren't seizures? His MRI just showed a thinning corpus callosum, which the neurologist said does not cause any trouble.

He's been on so many meds, clonidine, metadate, abilify, risperdal, prevacid, miralax, paxil. Have not seen any of these make an improvement, except the paxil seemed to help the first time I gave it to him, but now, even with increasing dosages, it's not helping much any more.

I used to think there was "something wrong with the month of April", because that is when they were more frequent, longer, more severe. I considered allergies, gave him decongestants, but that didn't make a difference, and the last two years they have been "off the schedule"...February and into March has been worse than the last six months.

If anyone has seen this in their kid, and had that "aha" moment and was able to do something for him/her, please let me know, it is heartbreaking to see him in such misery and not be able to do anything about it.

Thanks,

Karen
Waltham, MA

Hi Karen.

Welcome to WP.

I'm not a parent, but this sounds like a "meltdown." They can be triggered by sensory overload, and it's hard to know what anyone's "breaking point" is going to be for those because they're different for everyone. Sometimes I don't even know what sets mine off.

Fatigue, overstimulation/too much activity, physical illness, etc.--they can all be culprits.

If I can, I usually go into my room with the lights off and no sound (I get "migraine symptoms" minus the pain with mine) and wait until I feel better, often falling asleep.

If he's not hurting himself, you could just let him do what he's been doing--that's probably how he deals with the sensory overload. Maybe get him away from the situation into a quieter, dimmer place--like I said, that works for me. Again, everyone is different.

Hope that helps, and welcome aboard again.

Karen,

Thinning of the corpus callosum can have a significant effect on an individual. Dr. Elliott Sherr a Pediatric Neurologist at the University of San Francisco has researched disorders of the corpus callosum in depth with Dr. Lynn Paul a Neuropsychologist at California Institute of Technology and Dr. Warren Brown a Neuropsychologist at Travis Research Institute.

Dr. Paul's research can be found on Caltechs website under "Corpus Callosum Research Program". Dr Sherr's information can be found on UCSF's website under "Brain Development Research Program" and Dr. Brown can be found at the Travis Research Institute and UCLA at the Brain Research Institute.

Also there is an organization called the National Organization for Disorders of the Corpus Callosum that has a website with a wealth of information and they also hold an annual conference.

Sincerely,
Kristina