Psychiatric Medications and Diet/Supplement Inteventions

[Margaret Webb]

Hello,
I have a family that would like their 15 y.o. autistic daughter to come in for OATS/Stool testing and treatment. They are concerned, however, that treating her will change or “mess with” the perfect cocktail of medications she is on for behavior and school performance. They have had some experience with bad combinations of drugs, as well as negative side effects ,and they would like to avoid that. What is your experience with side effects and dosing changes in kids who undergo functional medicine treatment ( given that it may shift the brain chemistry)? And, how do you typically present this to parents? And, do you always communicate with the prescribing physician prior to starting treatment even if there are no contraindications with their medication and the supplement/botanical treatment?

Thanks! Margaret Webb

[DrWoeller]

Margaret,
I tell people that there may be things going on that the tests reveal that are causing/contributing to the need for medication. Therefore, working on these underlying biochemical imbalances may reduce the need for medications. The approach is to improve health first, but we cannot know for sure if implementing other “health supportive supplements” might cause side effects (not dangerous) elsewhere. There is just no way to know for sure. Anytime you add in nutrients there will be changes, but that doesn’t automatically mean its a bad thing. If the parents are overly concerned about rocking the boat than the solution is to just stay with the medications. The chances are if the parents were really pressed on “perfect cocktail” it would come out that it is likely not perfect – otherwise, they wouldn’t be looking for additional information.

If you haven’t already done so, ask them what is their desire in doing testing and seeking biomedical intervention.

Sincerely,
Dr. Woeller

P.S. I don’t typically contact other prescribing physicians because the products we use aren’t interacting with medications in my experience. I will express to the parents that they should share information with a prescribing doctor, but I am not typically contacting them myself.

[Riham El Asady]

Hi Dr Woeller,
I wanted to please follow up on this trail with a question related to psychiatric medications.
Although I was completely against the use of psychiatric medications for children, I was faced with a situation where my 9 year-old son experienced a terrible panic/anxiety attack about 9 months ago, at which time his neuropsychiatrist prescribed Risperdal and Citalopram for him. The former was aimed at addressing the acute anxiety attack and the latter was prescribed as a long term anti-depressant (SSRI). It was also around this time when I started my research around diet and biomedical interventions. After several months of use (of what I was told was a very low dose of the medications), and following several similar (although milder in severity) attacks that almost followed a cyclical pattern(coming every 3-4 weeks and lasting for about a week), I started gradually reducing the medications and replacing them with supplementation and diet management as well as the other components of the 4 pillars, such as methyl B12 injections. I am currently also using topical LDN, and I added in GABA and 5HTP (although we have been rather inconsistent recently). I have been seeing an overall improvement and a huge reduction in the symptoms associated with the previously described “attacks”, which I believe were likely PANS/PANDAS attacks. I have now completely stopped the Risperdal, and I am tapering the Citalopram to a very small dose now.
We are now attack-free for 3-4 months. I am just a bit concerned that stopping medications may trigger previous symptoms, but my preference really is to go through dietary interventions and addressing the biochemical disturbances through appropriate supplementation. I am additionally working with a homeopath based in London, who has tremendous experience with autism and PANS.
I would highly appreciate your advice as to my decision to reduce and finally remove psychiatric medications and if you have any special recommendations for addressing anxiety/depression through supplementation. Overall, my son is generally a happy child with very minor behavioral issues. He has, however, shown episodic mood swings in the past.
Thanks so much!

[DrWoeller]

Riham,
It sounds like you have done a great job in helping him with supplements, diet and LDN and not having had an attack in 3 to 4 months is really significant. At this point it is not likely the removal of the SSRI will trigger an attack with the other things on board, although this cannot be guaranteed. There’s a really good combination supplement from New Beginnings Nutritionals called Neuro-Serene you should take a look at – https://www.nbnus.net/products/516-neuro-serene-formula/. I would suggest combining it with Magnesium L-Threonate which is a form of magnesium that has been shown to be effective for anxiety/panic – https://www.nbnus.net/products/611-imagt-magnesium-l-threonate-new/

Dr. Woeller

[Riham El Asady]

Thanks very much Dr Woeller! This is extremely useful.
I love that the indicated supplement has many others that I currently use separately, all-in-one. Perfect! Will purchase right away.
Thanks for your feedback and indispensable guidance!

[DrWoeller]

Riham,
Yes, it’s a nice product.
Dr. Woeller

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