Drugs and Other Treatments as they Relate to The Spectrum



The examples fall into the "politically sensitive" area. This is because of the nature of autism and Asperger's syndrome as personality types. Therefore drug therapies are likely to focus on temporarily altering the patient's perceptive state (rather than "curative" or attempting to reduce disease symptoms). Drugs in this category are hallucinogens.
Since hallucinogenics are used recreationally, their use for psychological treatment becomes a political issue. The recreational interest in these drugs does not negate their ability to provide perception in a therapeutic environment.
The history of some of these treatments focused on attempts to "cure" autism. These attempts at "cure" had a negative impact on subsequent investigations of treatments using hallucinogenic drugs. In fairness, this was from a time when autism was not well-understood.
Note: I am not encouraging the use of either of these drugs. I don't have any legal problem advocating this; it's just that I don't feel like being their proponent. I don't have either the knowledge or data to conclude that either drug would be beneficial. Marijuana is fairly well-known as to its effects, but LSD-25 involves issue which suggest professional supervision.
I do strongly advocate clinical trials being performed.
Medical Marijuana (MMJ)
Medical marijuana (MMJ) is not an option in many jurisdictions. While MMJ is being advanced in connection with autism, most of the experience in MMJ for personality conditions relates to ADHD. Significantly, more "controlled study" psychological research is desperately needed. It is highly unlikely that MMJ will change the autism itself; however MMJ has the potential for therapy regarding social awareness issues.


From Autism Collaboration - www.autism.org Autism and Medical Marijuana In general these are personalities or personality disorders (depending on one's political viewpoint). A significant percentage of autistics -- probably the majority -- would object to a "cure". As noted above, it's unlikely that drugs therapy would "cure" a personality condition. MMJ treatment is focused on socialization training; not an attempt at a "cure". Such training or therapy related to "perception" would be easily evaluated, and will provide novel results for anyone researching this.
As to the issue of legal access, there are medical conditions for which the need for MMJ is more obvious than therapy for autism.
Medical marijuana is proposed to address issues of:
  1. as a training aid to assist the subject in perception of social interactions
  2. sensory overload (e.g., "meltdowns")
  3. anxiety

CBS article on use of MMJ to treat ADHD

Article on one family's use of MMJ, for disorders which are apparently ADHD-related.