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Autism's Drug Problem

Many people on the spectrum take multiple medications, which can lead to serious side effects and may not even be effective

Connor was diagnosed with autism early — when he was just 18 months old. His condition was already obvious by then. “He was lining things up, switching lights on and off, on and off,” says his mother, Melissa. He was bright, but he didn’t speak much until age 3, and he was easily frustrated. Once he started school, he couldn’t sit still in class, called out answers without raising his hand and got visibly upset when he couldn’t master a math concept or a handwriting task quickly enough. “One time, he rolled himself up into the carpet like a burrito and wouldn’t come out until I got there,” Melissa recalls. (All families in this story are identified by first name only, to protect their privacy.)
Connor was prescribed his first psychiatric drug, methylphenidate (Ritalin), at age 6. That didn’t last long, but when he was 7, his parents tried again. A psychiatrist suggested a low dose of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine (Adderall), a stimulant commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The drug seemed to improve his time at school: He was able to sit still for longer periods of time and focus on what his teachers were saying. His chicken-scratch handwriting became legible. Then, it became neat. Then perfect. And then it became something Connor began to obsess over.
“We were told that these are the gives and takes; if it’s helping him enough to get through school, you have to decide if it’s worth it,” Melissa says. It was worth it — for a while.
But when the Adderall wore off each day, Connor had a tougher time than ever. He spent afternoons crying and refusing to do much of anything. The stimulant made it difficult for him to fall asleep at night. So after a month or two, his psychiatrist added a second medication — guanfacine (Intuniv), which is commonly prescribed for ADHD, anxiety and hypertension, but can also help with insomnia. The psychiatrist hoped it might both ease Connor’s afternoons and help him sleep.
In some ways, it had the opposite effect. His afternoons did get slightly better, but Connor developed intense mood swings and was so irritable that every evening was a struggle. Rather than simply tossing and turning in bed, he refused to even get under the covers. “He wouldn’t go to bed because he was always angry about something,” Melissa says. “He was getting himself all wound up, carrying on, getting upset at night and crying.”
wound up, carrying on, getting upset at night and crying.” After seven months, his parents declared the combination unsustainable. They swapped guanfacine for over-the-counter melatonin, which helped Connor fall asleep with no noticeable side effects. But within a year, he had acquired a tolerance for Adderall. Connor’s psychiatrist increased his dosage and that, in turn, triggered tics: Connor began jerking his head and snorting. Finally, at his 9-year physical, his doctor discovered that he’d only grown a few inches since age 7. He also hadn’t gained any weight in two years; he’d dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 5th. That was the end of all the experiments. His parents took him off all prescription drugs, and today, at almost 13 years old, Connor is still medication-free. His tics have mostly disappeared. Although he has trouble maintaining focus in class, his mother says that the risk-benefit ratio of trying another drug doesn’t seem worth it. “Right now we’re able to handle life without it, so we do.”
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For Connor, eliminating prescription drugs was difficult, but doable. For others, multiple medications may seem indispensable. It’s not unusual for children with autism to take two, three, even four medications at once. Many adults with the condition do so, too. Data are scant in both populations, but what little information there is suggests multiple prescriptions are even more common among adults with autism than in children. Clinicians are particularly concerned about children with the condition because psychiatric medications can have long-lasting effects on their developing brains, and yet are rarely tested in children.
In general, polypharmacy — most often defined as taking more than one prescription medication at once — is commonplace in people with autism. In one study of more than 33,000 people under age 21 with the condition, at least 35 percent had taken two psychotropic medications simultaneously; 15 percent had taken three.
“Psychotropic medications are used pretty extensively in people with autism because there aren’t a lot of treatments available,” says Lisa Croen, director of the Autism Research Program at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. “Is heavy drug use bad? That’s the question. We don’t know; it hasn’t been studied.”

Disponível em: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autisms-drug-problem/>. Texto adaptado.

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APPLE PIE RECIPE

6 cups thinly sliced apples

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double-crust pie

Prepare your pastry for a two crust pie. Wipe, quarter, core, peel, and slice apples; measure to 6 cups. Combine sugar and cinnamon. The amount of sugar used depends on how tart your apples are. Arrange apples in layers in pastry lined pie plate. Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon. Dot top layer with small pieces of butter or margarine. Cover with top crust. Place on lowest rack in oven preheated to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes longer. Serve warm or cold. Source: < https://goo.gl/N6rWtZ > Date of retrieval: June 13th, 2018.

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Nada cai do céu

O racionamento a que pode ser submetida boa parte da população paulistana – e de outras cidades e estados brasileiros – poderia ser evitado? A questão é muito mais complexa do que possa parecer. Afinal, todos que vivemos nessas áreas já somos e seremos ainda mais afetados.
O calor bate recordes no mundo. Dados recentes apontam 2014 como o ano mais quente da história. A temperatura média no solo e nos oceanos aumentou 0,69 graus, superando recordes anteriores. Parece pouco, mas não é. A cada 20 ou 30 anos, em média, o Oceano Pacífico, a maior massa de água do Planeta, sofre variações de temperatura, ficando mais quente ou mais frio que o normal. Essas oscilações interferem nos ventos, na chuva e na temperatura em muitas regiões do globo. No Brasil, diversos estados já sentem os impactos dessa alteração climática. O verão passado foi um dos mais secos e quentes, não apenas na região da capital paulista e seu entorno, mas também em grande parte do Sudeste, sobretudo em Minas Gerais, de onde vem a maior parte da água que abastece a região metropolitana, por meio do sistema Cantareira. Áreas dessa região registraram anomalias de até 5 graus nas temperaturas máximas.
Com pouca água e maior consumo, devido ao calor, os rios e represas que abastecem o sistema caíram aos menores níveis já vistos. Em São Paulo, desde 2012, o Cantareira vem sofrendo com chuva abaixo do normal.
As previsões não são as melhores. Segundo o estudo da Climatempo, apenas no verão de 2017, é que se poderá esperar por uma chuva normal ou acima da média, para uma consistente recuperação do sistema.
Reverter a situação é um desafio. Trata-se de algo muito mais educativo do que meteorológico. Desde o final de 2013, meteorologistas têm alertado sobre esse cenário crítico. Já se sabe que o quadro não é favorável, e há pouca chance de mudança em curto prazo. Porém, em um planeta onde 1,4 bilhão de quilômetros cúbicos é ocupado por água, o ser humano ainda parece acreditar que ela nunca irá acabar. Com ou sem chuva à vista, a população precisa entender que a água pode – e vai – acabar se não forem tomadas medidas preventivas.
A conscientização sobre o consumo deve ser permanente. O que as nossas autoridades precisam entender é que não dá para passar uma vida acreditando na ajuda divina. É preciso arregaçar as mangas e se preparar. Ainda há muito a fazer e a investir. Porque nada cai do céu – nem mesmo a água tem caído, ultimamente.

MAGNO, Carlos. Folha de S. Paulo. Opinião,
25 fev. 2015. Adaptado.

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