He ended with student Sherry’s data before/after medication tapering and a short video of her telling the conference attendees to have a great rest of their day (after obtaining consent from her guardians). A major treatment success for JRC! Abstract below.
Psychotropic medications such as antipsychotics and antidepressants are often used in tandem with applied behavior analysis to treat the problem behavior of children with emotional and behavioral challenges in schools as well as those of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Although the Food and Drug Administration approved risperidone and aripiprazole to treat “irritability” associated with autism spectrum disorder, such drugs can have adverse effects such as weight changes, metabolic changes, sedation, acute dystonia, akathisia, tardive dyskinesia, parkinsonian features, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Many other off-label drugs are prescribed to manage problem behaviors. In fact, there may be no clear association between psychotropic medication use and psychiatric diagnosis. There is evidence to support the notion that discontinuation of psychotropic medications prescribed to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities can occur without increases in problem behavior. Drawing from 24 years of clinical data and over 1000 cases, we will explore medication management, tapering, and discontinuation through dose change effect sizes, conditional rates, visual analysis of data, and the clinical/ethical decision-making process in behavioral psychopharmacology. In many cases, psychotropic medications such as aripiprazole (Abilify), risperidone (Risperdal), olanzapine (Zyprexa), and quetiapine (Seroquel) can be safely tapered and discontinued amidst comprehensive behavioral treatment.
