ADHD | autism | depression | drug therapy | mental health | problem behaviors | side effects | teenagers
Drugs may be prescribed to treat problem behaviors of autism if the drugs are believed to be safe and if the patient is believed to be in distress.
This review article describes drug treatments that are used to help people with autism who have challenging behavior. Many of the drug trials for drugs to treat problem behavior in children are short because doctors are worried about the side effects of the drugs. While this may be a good approach for studying problem behaviors, short-term studies may not be a good idea for studying mental health issues such as depression, which is often a long-term problem. Also, the drugs used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be studied for longer periods of time because they seem to have fewer side effects than drugs used to treat problem behaviors. The authors find that drug therapy for problem behaviors is best suited for older teenagers and adults who have severely bad behavior and other mental health issues.
Or subscribe to feed using a feed reader.
