Diagnosis brought 25 years of pain

After 25 years of taking medication for a wrongly diagnosed disorder, Wendy Lawson is now tackling the issue on television and in a book. (code: 00723DW10) Wendy Lawson knows what it is to suffer due to the wrong medical prescription. Wrongly diagnosed as being schizophrenic when she really had autism spectrum disorder, the successful Warrnambool academic and author suffered the misery of 25 painful years of inappropriate medication.

Wendy has just returned from the UK where she featured in a new BBC documentary focusing on the incorrect prescription of anti-psychotic drugs for people who had autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. "I'm not angry about what happened to me, because it was ignorance. I didn't have a correct diagnosis at that stage but I am very angry that it is continuing to happen to other people," she said. Wendy said the documentary revealed that the wrong prescription of anti-psychotic drugs for people with autism spectrum disorder was continuing, causing a wide range of damaging side effects, although the extent of the problem was unclear. "For me it caused constipation, blurred vision, a dried mouth and it caused me to drift in and out of a zombie state and worsened the effects of autism spectrum disorder," she said.

Wendy said that after a correct diagnosis in 1996 she stopped taking anti-psychotic medication. Although her life improved dramatically since then, she said years of taking anti-psychotic medication had left her with the legacy of occasional involuntary limb movements. The documentary, which screened in the UK recently, showed the inappropriate prescription of anti-psychotic medication for people with ASD could also cause epileptic attacks, heart and weight problems, Wendy said. "I can't quote figures (as to the extent of the problem) in Australia but I do know, via the Internet, that lots of parents think anti-psychotic medication will help their (ASD) child with aggression and anxiety." "It will not help unless the child has a psychotic disorder as well as autism spectrum disorder."

Following the success of her first book, Life Behind Glass, a personal account of autism spectrum disorder, Wendy has completed a second book of ways to improve life for children with ASD. The new book, titled Life Within Grasp, is due for release in January 2001. . . .

(Report: EVE LAMB) © Copyright 2000 The Standard - a member of The Fairfax Publishing Group Australia All rights reserved.