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Excerpt

I am the parent of a 14-year-old young man with autism and a moderate degree of mental retardation. He is in the eighth grade in a self-contained classroom. He has a number of rituals that he engages in that appear to interfere with his quality of life. For example, he seems to have the need to walk throughout the house to make certain that all of the doors to the rooms and cabinets are closed and that the drawers in the kitchen and on various pieces of furniture are shut. Once he has done this, he still has difficulty relaxing and being with the family; he appears to have to go back through the house repeatedly to check to be certain that the doors and drawers have remained closed, even though he did a very thorough job the first time around. Our pediatrician diagnosed him with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and suggested that we consider a medicine to treat these behaviors. What do you think? …