Guest guest Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 Hi, I am just writing in the hope that someone may have encountered this problem before. Since 2001 my (then 21 year old) down syndrome son has slowed down and also begun to exhibit odd behaviour. He takes on average 2-3 hours to eat each meal when before he would eat faster than the rest of his family. He, perhaps as a result of this, has lost quite a bit of weight. This slowness to perform actions extends to all tasks such as washing hands, brushing teeth, getting dressed etc so as a result we now have to do everything for him and he has lost a lot of his independence. He is also exhibiting strange behaviour's such as seemingly staring at objects such as forks, knives before he would pick them up and sometimes even whispering something inaudible while picking up the knife/fork. His gait (way he walks) has also changed as he seems to now shuffle along rather than walk confidently, additionally he speaks in very low tones now and may or may not answer you back when you call. When he speaks now he may not make eye contact with you rather would look at his fingers when trying to form a word. Needless to say there are many other odd behaviours, I could write an essay on them but this behaviour came on so quick and it has decreased his (and our) quality of life. He has had a full battery of tests including thyroid, blood not to mention numerous brain scans. Have visited 2 neurologists and currently seeing a psychiatrist that has prescribed him an SSRI, lustral. The psychiatrist diagnosed obsessional slowness and prescribed this medication. However after several months it does not seem to have done much if anything at all. I was wondering if anyone had similar experiences to this. At the institution he attended he was in a " training phase " for work which I didn't think was very suitable and put a lot of stress on the clients there, this may or may not have been a trigger for this behaviour, I'm just not sure, It's been going on 5 years now and any additional information/opinions I could get would be helpful. Regards, Bernadette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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