Comprehensive guide to meds?
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Comprehensive guide to meds?
| Mon, 01-08-2007 - 9:34am |
DH is beginning to consider the possibility that DS (AS, 8) may need some chemical assistance... finally! Is there a web site or book that would help me do some research on the many types of drugs I hear talked about on the board? We have issues mainly with aggression, anger, anxiety and mood swings. I know there are many different options out there - how on earth do you figure out which route to go? I know I need to get him back to the psychiatrist who did his initial eval 18 months ago. At the time, DH was adamantly against meds and said ONLY as a last resort. I think he's beginning to see that DS isn't happy and wants to make sure we are doing everything we can for him.
Thanks,
Melissa

I don't have an answer to your question about the comprehensive drug guide, but convincing some people the necessity of drugs is hard. I thought the article I'm reposting below is a compelling argument. The human brain likes to fall into comfortable patterns. The ASD brain, well, even moreso! My dd takes seizure meds because, again, the brain tends to automatically fall into the superhighway of patterns instead of the road less traveled. By putting up roadblocks to those patterns, we lessen the damage. Epilepsy, OCD, migraines, addiction and so on tend to only get worse without some sort of intervention. The article below speaks of prozac, but it really is true with many of these problems. The tricky part is finding the right drug for the individua so it may take a lot of experimentation. Also, some of the drugs can make the problems temporarily worse while it's building up to therapeutic blood levels and begins working. It seems the docs don't really seem to know which one is going to be the one that is going to work. It seems they are working on helping to determine which meds might be best by a taste sensitivity test. Cool, but wish science could hurry up a little. LOL
http://tinyurl.com/y7nuz5
This is a repost:
I think it's very exciting these type of drugs can actually help repair the brain and not just mitigate symptoms. I think what is left unsaid in this article is not only is the repair important, but left untreated, depression, anxiety, etc can actually inflict more damage to the brain. My daughter's ped. neuro has made similar comments of her seizure meds and how using medication to stop them will help prevent further damage.
Just thought it would be interesting for those who are using any pharmas.
Research Reveals How Prozac Triggers New Brain Cell Growth
TUESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- Experts have long suspected that one way antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft dispel depression is by stimulating the growth of new brain cells.
Now, researchers say they've zeroed in on just how that happens.
"It was clear that this generation of new neurons is important for the action of antidepressants," explained lead researcher Grigori Enikolopov, an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
His team report the findings in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers decided to look at how the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants -- the widely used class of drugs that includes Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft -- might spur brain cell growth. To do so, they tracked the way in which stem cells -- undifferentiated cells that can grow into specialized cells -- became neurons in a special mouse model given the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine).
"Stem cells in the brain go through several steps before they become neurons," Enikolopov said. Examining the cascade of events, his team found that "cells which are born from the stem cells, called amplifying progenitors, are the cells being targeted by Prozac," he said. According to Enikolopov, Prozac zeroes in on these amplifying progenitors and increases their numbers. Within three to four weeks, his team noticed an increased number of mature neurons.
The Cold Spring researchers noted that about four years ago, other researchers found that animals that received Prozac showed a rise in neuron growth. Then, about two years ago, other experts found that this generation of new neurons is necessary for the drug to achieve its behavioral effect of lifting depression, Enikolopov said.
He believes the latest finding is another piece to add to the puzzle of how SSRI antidepressants work. However, it does not provide the entire answer. "What happens between having more neurons and decreasing depression, the changing of mood -- that is unanswered," he said.
His team used a new mouse strain that made it easy to identify and track these early progenitor cells. The work "defines a cellular target for antidepressants," Enikolopov said. "What has been known for 20, 30 years is that Prozac increases the level of serotonin " But what wasn't known was why Prozac takes three or four weeks to start working.
"Alcohol, Valium, they work immediately," he says. "But these selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, they need three or four weeks."
"Three to four weeks is basically comparable, in our schedule, of the 28 to 30 days it takes to go from a stem cell to a neuron," he pointed out.
Prozac first went on the market in 1987 in the United States as the first SSRI. These medications selectively target serotonin, inhibiting its reabsorption into the cell so there is more available.
Dennis Steindler, executive director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida, Gainesville, applauded the Cold Spring work.
"The beauty of this study is, a new model has been generated," he said.
"This study is in essence a 'readout,' a neurogenic readout, whereby using this model, the Enikolopov group found exactly the cell that increases its rate of proliferation," he said. "That leads to generating more neurons as a result of taking this drug."
"It could have been the stem cell, progenitor or a young neuron. They found it was the progenitor cell," Steindler said.
Hi Melissa,
You can try Timothy E.Wilens Straight Talk about psychiatric medications for kids .
Like Dee says, "Straight Talk about Psychiatric Medications..." is an excellent book.