Table of Contents
Social interaction skills
This is usually the base of a good autism treatment. Effective social programs teach a child early communication and social interaction skills. In children under 3 years of age, these interventions usually take place at home and they target specific deficits in learning, language, imitation, attention, motivation, compliance, and initiative of interaction. Children older than 3 usually have a school-based, individualized, special education.
During the middle and high school years, instruction will begin to address such practical matters as work, community living, and recreational activities. Similar life skills should be taught to people with schizophrenia. It is based on learning and using coping mechanisms to address these problems, which allows people with schizophrenia to attend school, work, and socialize.
Patients who receive regular psychosocial treatment also adhere better to their medication schedule and have fewer relapses and hospitalizations.
Medications
The medications used for autism are those that have been developed to treat similar symptoms in other disorders. Many of these medications have not been officially approved by the FDA for use in children, but doctors may prescribe these medications if they feel they are appropriate for your child. So-called antipsychotic medications are the foundation of pharmacological treatment for schizophrenia medication.
Older antipsychotic medications include:
- chlorpromazine (Thorazine®), haloperidol (Haldol®)
- perphenazine (Etrafon®, Trilafon®)
- fluphenzine (Prolixin®)
- risperidone (Risperdal®),
- olanzapine (Zyprexa®),
- quietiapine (Seroquel®),
- sertindole (Serdolect®),
- ziprasidone (Geodon®)
Dietary interventions
These interventions are based on the idea that food allergies cause symptoms of autism. Many experts believe also that an insufficiency of a specific vitamin or mineral may cause some autistic symptoms.
Prognosis
There are many different potential outcomes of schizophrenia but there is no cure. Autism is also a lifelong disorder. Many people with schizophrenia and autism find that their symptoms improve with medication and/or therapy respectively, and some achieve substantial control of the symptoms over time. One of the big problems is that many parents of autistic children face financial difficulties as they must often pay for essential support and therapeutic services but still they are sometimes not eligible to receive financial aid.