Mom gives autistic son marijuana

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Mom gives autistic son marijuana
45
Mon, 11-23-2009 - 2:26pm

The Dr. that says this child is "stoned" and negates the fact that he was wasting away on THIRTEEN pharmaceuticals before, is an idiot!


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AutismNews/mother-son-marijuana-treat-autism/story?id=9153881


 



iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2006
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 11:13am

I do not know.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 11:14am

It sounds like your grandsons mom possibly



iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 11:34am

If you look at statistics, diagnosis of mental retardation has gone down in direct correlation to diagnosis of autism going up. So in the past, these "autistic" kids were simply being diagnosed as mentally retarded. There are a couple of reasons for this. Autism has been changed to a spectrum disorder, so there is a broader range of symptoms which fall under the title of autism, from mild, high functioning,



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 12:58pm

Hind sight is always 20/20. I do wish I would have called CPS. I'll be honest, I didn't want my son to get into trouble, plus he kept saying he was handling it. He would clean and clean just to have her destroy things. Not making excuses. I had been there when it was just my son and G'son. Clean house, baby taken care of. He was doing everything to keep things going.

Then 2 years ago, December 19, to be exact she took off. We have no idea where they are. It's been two years since we have seen my G'son. Once about every 3 months, she'll call and either tell my son he will never see G. again, or she will allow him to talk to his Dad. No, that wasn't the first time she's taken off. I begged my son to go get papers drawn up. But what do I know? We think, think, she's in Utah. Which is about 2,000 miles away. Yes there is a court order in Wis. But unless she ever returns there, son has little chance of enforcing anything. Right now he just doesn't have the money to fight her. And legal aide won't take custody battle.

Yes, CPS has been involved since all this happened. G'son at the age of 3 1/2 was found wondering alone in Wyoming. They gave him back to her. (My son has past record. Once he punched a guy in the face. Drugs involved. Years ago. But still on record.)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2009
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 6:09pm

And here are the side effects of Ritalin, a commonly prescribed medication for children with ADHD (my DS included):

Reduced appetite: This effect may be worse in the very young. It may improve after several weeks or months. If it continues to be problematic, one may reduce the dose; or time a short-acting stimulant to wear off before mealtimes. Some people find that methylphenidate compounds have slightly less appetite suppression than amphetamine compounds. In some cases we resign ourselves to a eating a large breakfast and supper followed by a very small lunch. A late evening snack can also help. Some non-stimulant AD/HD medications do not cause the same degree of appetite suppression.

Rebound: Some people who take short acting methylphenidate or amphetamine experience irritability or depression for an hour as the stimulant wears off. Sometimes this is worse than the individual’s behavior before the medication was started. One can avoid rebound by spacing the doses closer together, giving a smaller dose after the final larger dose, or by switching to a longer acting stimulant. Recently several new long-acting stimulant preparations have been released. Although the long-acting compounds often have less rebound, it may still occur in susceptible individuals. Sometimes, we add a tiny dose of short-acting stimulant when the longer-acting stimulant wears off.

Headache: If this does not improve with time, we may reduce the dose or switch to another stimulant. Sometimes caffeine restriction helps. However, if an individual with a heavy caffeine habit suddenly stops the caffeine he may get a caffeine withdrawal headache. If the caffeine cessation happens at the same time as the start of the stimulant, the caffeine withdrawal headache may be mistaken for a stimulant side effect.

Jittery feeling: Eliminate caffeine or other stimulant-type medications. A small dose of a beta-blocker (a type of blood pressure medication) can block tremor or jitters. Make sure that the individual is eating regular meals.

Gastrointestinal upset: Take the medication with meals or eat smaller, more frequent meals.

Sleep difficulty: It is a good idea to take a sleep history before starting a stimulant medication. Sometimes the sleep problem is due to the AD/HD, not the medication. If the sleep problem is truly due to medication effect, we have several options. Sleep difficulty is more common when one is using a long-acting stimulant or if one is giving a short-acting stimulant in the evening. Now that there are more long-acting stimulants on the market, one can often eliminate this problem by using one of the more intermediate-length stimulants. Clonidine or guanfacine may help decrease agitation and may also facilitate sleep. We also counsel the individual on establishing good sleep habits. Paradoxically, there are a few individuals who sleep better when they take a small dose of stimulant in the late evening. For these individuals, the stimulant helps slow racing thoughts and helps them lie still in their beds.

Irritability: Sometimes irritability may be due to the AD/HD or another psychiatric disorder. If the irritability is truly due to the stimulant, one might reduce the stimulant dose, switch to a different stimulant, add an SSRI, (paroxetine, sertraline) an alpha agonist (clonidine/guanfacine) or use another class of medications to treat the AD/HD.

Depression: This may occasionally be a delayed effect of stimulant medication. It may be more common with the long-acting stimulants. Screening for a history of depression, and treating co-existing depression can minimize this. If the depression truly is related to the medication, one may switch to another class of medications to treat the AD/HD. These second-line medications would include the tricyclic antidepressants, bupropion (Wellbutrin) and atomoxetine (Strattera.)

Anxiety: If an individual is anxious, the stimulants can exacerbate the symptoms. The treatment of this side effect is similar to that of depression. It may be best to treat a co-existing anxiety disorder before treating the AD/HD.

Blood glucose changes: Individuals with diabetes mellitus or borderline glucose tolerance could potentially see a rise in blood sugar. On the other hand, if the stimulant cuts one's appetite, one may use less insulin. Individuals with diabetes can often take stimulants but may need closer monitoring of their diabetic control.

Increased blood pressure: Stimulants may cause increases in blood pressure or pulse. This is usually not significant at normal doses in most people. However occasionally, the blood pressure effects can be significant. Individuals on very high doses of stimulants or individuals at risk for blood pressure problems should be monitored more closely. Some adults may opt to continue the stimulant and add a blood pressure medication. A small open study suggested that adults who were well controlled on their blood pressure medications could take amphetamine without significant increases in blood pressure. Individuals with blood pressure changes need to discuss the risks and benefits with their physicians. (1)

Tics and stereotyped (repetitive) movements: In the past we rarely gave stimulants to individuals with tics because we believed that the stimulant would make the tics worse. Recent data seems to indicate that low to moderate doses of amphetamine or methylphenidate do not exacerbate tics. If an individual has tics, or develops them while on a stimulant, it should be discussed with the prescribing physician. The patient and physician should then carefully weigh the risks and potential benefits or medication treatment.

Psychosis or paranoia: These are rare side effects. They may occur in an individual who is already predisposed to a bipolar disorder or another psychotic disorder. In a few cases, psychosis has occurred in individuals who have no previous history of bipolar disorder or psychosis. Psychosis may also occur when someone takes a stimulant overdose. It is important to screen for and treat certain other psychiatric disorders prior to starting a stimulant. If psychosis occurs while taking a stimulant, one should immediately stop the medication and call the prescribing doctor.

Seizures: Several studies have suggested that individuals whose epilepsy is well-controlled on medication can safely take stimulants. A small study suggested that asymptomatic individuals with an abnormal EEG might be at increased risk of seizures when they take stimulants. (2)

Sudden Death: There are anecdotal accounts of individuals who died suddenly died while taking stimulants. However, the incidence of these cases does not appear to exceed the incidence of individuals in the overall population who die in this manner. (3)

Why not the hue and cry over Ritalin (which is also thought to be addictive)? Marijuana has such a stigma associated that it seems that researchers don't want to investigate all the good that it could do.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2009
Wed, 11-25-2009 - 6:38pm

<<>>

It used to be called manic-depression, which has been around a loooong time.

"Bipolar disorder is perhaps one of the oldest known illnesses. Research reveals some mention of the symptoms in early medical records. It was first noticed as far back as the second century. Aretaeus of Cappadocia (a city in ancient Turkey) first recognized some symptoms of mania and depression, and felt they could be linked to each other. His findings went unnoticed and unsubstantiated until 1650, when a scientist named Richard Burton wrote a book, The Anatomy of Melancholia, which focused specifically on depression. His findings are still used today by many in the mental health field, and he is credited with being the father of depression as a mental illness."

http://www.caregiver.com/channels/bipolar/articles/brief_history.htm

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-26-2009
Thu, 11-26-2009 - 3:22pm

Totally agree that marijuana is way safer than sythetic chemicals...ok, so marijuana may cause a slightly lower IQ over time, this is because long, prolonged use actually coats your braincells ( which goes away after abstinence).

Also, studies have shown that prolonged use of amphetamines in children/adolescents can cause memory loss that won't regenerate and fix it self after abstinence...

Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Fri, 11-27-2009 - 3:01am

As far as bipolar, the main reason you never heard of it was that it carried a huge stigma. Rates of the major psychoses have stayed pretty steady as far as I know, although there may have been an expansion of the bipolar dx (i.e. more things are now classified as bipolar spectrum, as far as I know).

With autism there does appear to be a genuine increase, and there has been an increase in dx as well, so between those two things it looks like an explosion of cases. The girl you knew in school probably never received an autism dx. Roughly speaking, if you were verbal back then, you were by definition not autistic. Her parents may have been told that she was mildly retarded or they may have been told that she was having psychological problems caused by her mother, for example.

~~~~~ o o o ~~~~

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Fri, 11-27-2009 - 3:06am

I am sorry your grandson had to go through that. It sounds like he had a genuinely deprived environment in his first years of life. Maybe he would have been more verbal in a better environment, or maybe not. It is impossible to tell.

Your son, the father of this child, is he the one with bipolar? If so, that would explain the drug use.

There are a few doctors who suspect some kind of link between autism, tourette's and the major psychoses.

~~~~~ o o o ~~~~

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Fri, 11-27-2009 - 3:19am

FWIW, my dad and uncle did not speak till they were 4. They had no speech impediments. They did not have twin language (I asked, my father remembers it quite well). So, I asked why on earth they did not speak. My father looked at a point somewhere above my left shoulder and said in a tone as if he had never really thought about it before that they simply felt no need to tell anyone anything.

They are today 78 and both show several key autistic characteristics (lack of empathy being the biggie). When they were 4 and not speaking, the family thought it was funny. At one point in their schooling, an educator did suggest that something was wrong with my uncle. Specifically she suggested that he had childhood schizophrenia, which was the term used for what we today would call non-Kanner's autism. So my grandmother pulled them out of that school, since she was convinced that they were brilliant (which they are in a way) and by the standards of her day, brilliant could not co-exist with any flaws.

Last year my aunt died and I got all her papers related to the family. In there was a description of my father's grandma, written by one of her nieces. It is almost like reading a description of my father. She was considered very odd, eccentric, made her own clothes to her own specs (i.e. not according to current fashion), preferred not to leave her house and various other things, including an apparent disregard for the feelings of others.

I am convinced it has always existed. But in previous generations, if you could walk and talk, you were good to go. If you could not walk or talk, you got put in an institution. The approach today is more nuanced and our bar for "good enough" is much higher.

~~~~~ o o o ~~~~

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde