Zoloft and Clonidine question

[Guest guest]

The therapist we had who had never dealt with AS and didn't know much

about it (and who spent his sessions playing chess with my son) put

him on Zoloft because he thought DS was depressed. We left him on it

for a while and have taken him off now that he's no longer seeing the

therapist. We saw absolutely no change in him while on it and I see

no reason to leave him on something that doesn't help.

What does help is his Clonidine, which he's been on since he was

three. Our pediatrician said the fact that the Clonidine still helps

him was one of the signals he might be AS instead of ADHD, which is

the reason the Clonidine was originally prescribed.

Question -- do any of you have any experience with either of these

drugs you'd care to share? He takes a whole Clonidine in the morning,

then another at lunch and two at night before he goes to bed. It

really does seem to help him stay calm. The Zoloft did nothing as far

as we could tell.

Thanks,

Carole

[Guest guest]

I need to add, in case this sounds like a heavy dose of Clonidine,

that my child, who just turned 12 last Friday, is 5-7 and weighs 160

pounds. He's not a skinny little kid. : )

Carole

[Guest guest]

> What does help is his Clonidine, which he's been on since he was

> three. Our pediatrician said the fact that the Clonidine still

helps

> him was one of the signals he might be AS instead of ADHD, which is

> the reason the Clonidine was originally prescribed.

>

> Question -- do any of you have any experience with either of these

> drugs you'd care to share? He takes a whole Clonidine in the

morning,

> then another at lunch and two at night before he goes to bed. It

> really does seem to help him stay calm. The Zoloft did nothing as

far

> as we could tell.

>

> Thanks,

> Carole

Hi Carole. We have actually had experience with both. Zoloft was

wonderful with my ds and we used it for a number of years with good

results. Clonidine was also a wonderful med that we used. In our

case, it was used to get him to sleep at night because he otherwise

would be awake for long periods of time.

Roxanna

[Guest guest]

Roxanna,

This proves the theory of no two of our kids being alike in the meds

category... Zoloft was what caused the manic episode that got Nick

hospitalized. Although that hospitalization got us our official diagnosis of

Asperger's, so it was a pretty good thing I guess.

Clonidine wasn't bad, but didn't really work. We are on Strattera which

really seems to work for us. He sleeps, and he can focus in school.

Love

Tammy

[Guest guest]

I've come to the conclusion that knowing how others do on a

medication tells you nothing about how your child will do on it.

However it's always interesting to see what works most often. And to

talk about potential drawbacks too. My ds took zoloft along w/

strattera. We saw no changes w/ the zoloft. The drawback was weight

loss. No appetite at all. I'm tempted to take the rest myself! I

would not mind losing a few pounds. And if made me less

anxious...bonus! a