need some help plz x

My first thought is if the consultant can't make this decision, then how the heck are you supposed to?  They should have given you a list of pros and cons for them.

Also, you might not realise, but there are several classes of 'happy pills' that work in different ways in the brain. The one's you list are antipsychotics, which are the type Marjorie has experience of, and which are often prescribed for schizophrenia.  On a quick look I found reference to risperidone being used for irritability in autism.  I didn't find reference to aripiprazole being used for autism, but then I only looked at one article each!  If you really want to follow it up, you'll need to do a search and look at several articles for each.

I did some basic behavioral pharmacology as part of a course I did.  One thing I learned is that really even the experts can't always predict how pills will work on an individual. So it may well come down to trying them in turn and seeing what works.

However I would ask your consultant why he thinks an antiphychotic is appropriate, and not one of the other classes (anti-anxiety, sedative, SRI, SSRI).  You don't say what problems your son has, so I couldn't comment on the appropriateness (not that I'm an expert anyway!). I'm currently on an SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor: I can explain what that means if you like!), which makes me feel generally a bit happier without feeling like I've been 'changed' or zombified! However I do feel it's reduced my motivation and may have worsened my already bad sleeping, so I'm probably going to come off it or try a different one. It helped me through a bad patch though, and some autistics do choose to be on medication permanently.  I'm currently on Sertraline.

So I agree with Marjorie: medications shouldn't be the first choice, or an excuse for not working out solutions to his problems.  But I do think they have a place.

My first thought is if the consultant can't make this decision, then how the heck are you supposed to?  They should have given you a list of pros and cons for them.

Also, you might not realise, but there are several classes of 'happy pills' that work in different ways in the brain. The one's you list are antipsychotics, which are the type Marjorie has experience of, and which are often prescribed for schizophrenia.  On a quick look I found reference to risperidone being used for irritability in autism.  I didn't find reference to aripiprazole being used for autism, but then I only looked at one article each!  If you really want to follow it up, you'll need to do a search and look at several articles for each.

I did some basic behavioral pharmacology as part of a course I did.  One thing I learned is that really even the experts can't always predict how pills will work on an individual. So it may well come down to trying them in turn and seeing what works.

However I would ask your consultant why he thinks an antiphychotic is appropriate, and not one of the other classes (anti-anxiety, sedative, SRI, SSRI).  You don't say what problems your son has, so I couldn't comment on the appropriateness (not that I'm an expert anyway!). I'm currently on an SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor: I can explain what that means if you like!), which makes me feel generally a bit happier without feeling like I've been 'changed' or zombified! However I do feel it's reduced my motivation and may have worsened my already bad sleeping, so I'm probably going to come off it or try a different one. It helped me through a bad patch though, and some autistics do choose to be on medication permanently.  I'm currently on Sertraline.

So I agree with Marjorie: medications shouldn't be the first choice, or an excuse for not working out solutions to his problems.  But I do think they have a place.