#124 - Medication as a Treatment Tool for Emotional and Behavioral Challenges

Medicine can be impactful in treating emotional and behavioral challenges but finding the right agent and especially the right dose can be tricky and time consuming. This episode covers:

Determining factors indicating it’s time to consider medication as a treatment tool
How to tell the medicine working
Why it takes so long to find the right fit
The need for markers, tests, or predictors to help choose a pharmaceutical route
What to expect when starting a medicine
Comparison of drug classes and options within those classes
Dosing and the importance of finding the right provider and what to do if the wait list is long

About the Guest

Dr. Craig A. Erickson has worked to obtain continuous federal, foundation, internal, and industry funding supporting his and his collaborators' research over the last 10 ten years of his career. He is the inventor or co-inventor on many patents focused on translational treatment development in neurodevelopmental disorders that are held at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and at his previous employer the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is considered an international expert in the clinical treatment of fragile X syndrome and has similar expertise in fragile X-specific clinical trial development. Dr. Erickson is additionally an avid teacher of future generations of child psychiatrists has received several teaching awards for his work in physician education. He also enjoys mentoring junior faculty in the behavioral and developmental neuropsychiatry sub-field of child psychiatry.

Specifically in research, he and his colleagues have moved forward several repurposed molecules for study in fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorder including work with acamprosate, riluzole, ketamine, D cycloserine, and N acetyl cysteine among other repurposed molecules. He also is working now to move several novel molecules into autism and fragile X-specific study using proprietary compounds abandoned from initially intended use that may hold promise in the disorders which he and his colleagues study.

Clinical Interests: Fragile X syndrome; inpatient neurodevelopmental disorders acute crisis stabilization

Research Interests: Fragile X syndrome; autism spectrum disorders; neurodevelopmental disorders; molecular blood markers; quantitative measurement of pathophysiology in developmental disabilities; translational treatment development; psychiatric services for those with developmental disabilities and severe behavior