My son is almost 16, has aspergers - lots of anxiety this…

Good afternoon. My name is ***** ***** I have served individuals with Aspergers prior to it even being diagnosable in the USA (Twenty seven years of dedication to this group of people). I do have two masters, one in Special Education, the other in Individual and Social Rehabilitation.

Although I cannot prescribe or recommend medication, I did participate in a study at Yale Medical that you might find interesting. The SSRI Zoloft, for some reason, was noted by many parents to have an extremely relaxing and increase in cognitive processes with only individuals with Aspergers. It was a longitudinal study, and I found that with those young adults treated, it did break up depression if it was present, but at a lower level than those who are neurotypical or have other spectrum disorders. For people with Aspergers, I found there was a very different effect, it lowered anxiety with few in any side effects. The study was never published (Ami Klin/Fred Volkmar) as they could not locate the exact neural interaction to cause this effect.

Since then, I have mentioned it to parents, and found the same result if they chose to do to a doctor and try it. Not every single person had this reaction, but many did, and there were no complaints of normal. Of course, I can only tell you of this experience, and that the impact occurred (without other medications) in two to four weeks.

I hope you see what I am getting at. It is not harmful, nor is it a major tranquilizer, however I have heard of:

Better sleep.

Greater emotional control

Lower (greatly lower) anxiety

Greater clarity in cognition

Greater flexibility.

I hope this is helpful, and please do not say I "recommended this" or prescribed it. I just mentioned my experience, and have not seen that with any other medication that is FDA approved.

If this is helpful, please do accept this answer as it supports the work I do. If you have any follow up information or questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Dan