SSRI drugs and their interaction or reaction with AS

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A few years back, when I was in the process of getting diagnosed with AS, a doctor instead diagnosed me with anxiety instead. Not in addition to AS, but instead of. It turns out later, that this doctor was wrong.

Apparently, according to this doctor, the reason I don't understand jokes, get humor, recognise faces, have normal conversations, have special interests, get obsessed etc etc is because apparently I am "just anxious".

And, the psychologist I was sent to because of my "anxiety" said that I was "not odd enough" to qualify for AS.

I was prescribed an SSRI which I never persisted with but have since read somewhere that the reactions of drugs in NT people are different to those people with AS, as in their bodies react differently to drugs such as SSRI.

I can't find a doctor anywhere who knows about this.

Does anyone know of a web reference to this information?

Google Temple Grandin and SSRI medication. SOME and not all ASD people get a good response from small doses of SSRI meds. There is NO blanket rule for us.
Doctors have very little understanding of ASD's in my humble opinion. They also have little understanding of sensory overload, anxiety and ASD's and the complex interplay between the three.
Go and find a proper ASD specialist and pursue that line of enquiry rather than even bothering with a General Practitioning doctor or even a psychiatrist (which will does you up on psych drugs....)

If you find the info please pm me links/references. My doc is bouncing me off a couple new meds right now, and I feel completely uninformed on the topic--would like to know what to expect from certain drugs, being AS instead of NT.

Temple Grandin took Imipramine for her anxiety at first. She researched an Index Medicus and got a precription for it, and after three days her anxiety vanished "like magic." I asked a psych for Imipramine and she said it was a shot in the dark. I don't think SSRIs have done me much good.

On Zoloft for OCD. Can't really say that it does much for the ASD (they say it can make the repetitive behaviours less, stuff like only being able to focus on that special interest.... It might help a little, as I'm typing here after all and it's not my interest). Doesn't do much for the OCD, really, and the professor I saw said it wouldn't; it really helped with the panic attacks though.

I need the maximum on label dose to stop the panic attacks (several a day otherwise).

Valium helps the best IMO, as it helps the "overwhelmed" feeling from excess sensory input. Not a SSRI.

Seroquol works if you have sleeping problems or a mind that won't stop racing (though they give something similar to kids nowadays to control tantrums and stuff. That's a controversial subject right there). Not a SSRI.

It's kinda sad that I function better when drugged out of my mind than when I'm not.

I'm currently trying to wean myself off effexor, which is an ssri and snri. It seems to have completely killed my short term memory. I know people with AS don't have great short term memories anyway, but Its really difficult
to have conversations because I go completely blank.

There's a condition called "autistic catatonia" which can cause a hypersensitivity to neuroleptic drugs (also known as "anti-psychotics" -- but they're prescribed for much more than psychosis these days). The reactions are serious and can result in permanent movement disorders (brain damage), and severe behavioral changes.

It's a bit rare, IIRC 15% of autistics have the condition, but the bad reaction in such people to those drugs is severe. I don't have any good links off the top of my head, and I'm very tired ATM, but a google search for "autistic catatonia" ought to give a lot of results. It's a condition most doctors, even specialists, are unlikely to have heard of, BTW.

Ok, here's one link:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/0 ... newsletter


Besides that I've heard anecdotally over the years that ASC people tend to be hyper sensitive to meds in general -- to primary and to side effects, especially unusual or unheard of side-effects. It varies with the individual, of course. And being hypo-responsive is also possible. But there isn't much if any formal information about that, though. It's basically be cautious and don't be surprised by "weird" reactions, as far as I know.

With Prozac, I pretty immediately had a strong lean to the right when I walked and with Zoloft, my eyes went upward and I had a hard time keeping them down to look straight ahead and had to keep my eyes closed until the medicine wore off. I know it sounds strange but that's how those meds affected me and I won't go near them again.

Those sound like dystonic reactions. Neuoleptics are much more likely to cause them, but sometimes, in susceptible people, SSRI's can cause them. Sometimes it even becomes permanent, even after the drug is stopped. So you might want to watch out about neuroleptics, too.


PS I'm not a doctor, blah blah

No worry there, and that's scary to think it could be permanent. I've had enough really bad reactions that have quite scared me that I won't go near any drugs. They put me on Mellaril when I was a teen and I started hallucinating where I was trying to save a smaller boy in a park who I thought was being harmed by another boy when they were only playing together and someone had to pull me away from the scene as I was trying to intervene. I'm not sure why they even put me on it except that I was having emotional problems which included some bad behavior because I couldn't speak well due to being autistic.

I remember another incident when I was in the hospital when I was 17 or 18 and given a dose of Haldol. I started to feel a lot of tension in my neck and before too long my neck and head were arched completely backward and I could do nothing but lie down. My doctor was called and I was given a shot of some sort I guess to reverse the effects and she waited there in my room until I recovered to a more normal position. I guess those sorts of drugs are too strong for me and I have never understood my reactions to them but they are definitely of the extreme.

Sure sounds like it (that you're hypersensitive to those drugs) -- that reaction sounds like classic dystonia, too. And yikes about the Mellaril -- I've heard of people hallucinating from neuroleptics, and then being given more and more because the doctor assumes the hallucinations are from psychosis rather than the drug. (The article I linked about "autistic catatonia" is about a person that (and many other things) happened to.)

You might want to read a bit about "autistic catatonia" -- some people may not have the full-blown thing, but behavior and movement troubles and sensitivity to neuroleptics are a part of it. Might apply, might not, of course.

Thank you AIME...I'll definitely check that out.

Ugh, it just occurred to me that the link in the post above is about a really severe/dramatic case. There's a paper by Wing and Shah called "Catatonia in autistic Spectrum Disorders" that's a little more clear and clinical --

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/176/4/357

I'm still reading it but it's bringing back a lot of things and really still an issue for me today. That's why my actions were so bizarre to me during that hallucination because in my original state I would have 'never' been capable of something so assertive as that. The Children's Home where I lived at the time sent me for a brain scan so obviously something was quite notable to them. I think there was some deterioration as I had gotten older in certain areas which are being described there. And with the brain scan, again they weren't able to get the scan because I immediately went into shock from an allergic reaction and they had to give me shots of adrenaline to reverse the effects. No wonder I have had such a challenged life. I have had bad reactions to most drugs but those were the most extreme. That sort of overwhelming inertia was another reason I attempted a near fatal drug overdose when I was nineteen. Because I was literally incapable of functioning on my own and I had absolutely no one who understood, least of all myself, who would or could help me. And I'm still struggling much the same way. It's really good to know about this. Thank you.

I can't take SSRIs. I've already had convulsions, tics, weight gain, edema, inability to concentrate, then my GI tract shut down. I ended up having to have all kinds of expensive tests because my doctor refused to believe a low dose could cause the reactions I had, but it turns out yes it was the drugs.

I tried probably a dozen antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs and I'm hypersensitive to all of them except valium. the latest thing we tried is a very low dose of elavil to make me sleep.

I concluded it's no use to take antidepressants at doses prescribed for depression, since I'm only depressed when I can't sleep.