We have a 7 year old son who has SM, and has never spoken at school. After attending your wonderful seminar in Florida, we returned and got him in to play therapy and started him on 2.5mg of prozac. He is on his second month of prozac now 5mg. We have seen no progress yet. The doctor suggested that we give him a small dose (2.5mg) of Xanax twice a day, as well as the prozac. She told us we would keep him on the Xanax anywhere from 3-6 months. Have you ever used this in treating SM, and what would your expert advise be? It was obvious after attending you seminar that you have great knowledge regarding this disorder and we truly respect your opinion. Thank you.

Answer

Hello! Nice to hear from you 🙂

NO, I have never ever used Xanax or any other benzos to treat children. It is not necessary. Side effects of tiredeness is too common, no matter what the dose, with Xanax. Plus, it is an addicting drug and long term effects such as short term memory loss have been known to occur. To me, there is no reason at all to use Xanax.

What is going to help your child progress is the communication anxiety therapy…..strategies via games to help progress him communicatively. Without this, progress on any med will be limited.

Dr. Elisa Shipon-Blum