These comments are made for the purpose of discussion and should NOT be used as recommendations for or against therapies or other treatments. An individual patient is always advised to consult their own physician.
Clonidine
Question: We have a five-year old grandson who had brain damage (left hemisphere) at birth.
He can’t talk, but has been in a very good preschool since he was two years old. He
is getting speech therapy and other kinds of help. For the past few months he has
had behavior problems, probably related to his lack of communication problems. He is also
difficult to understand and he does not respond to discipline
of any kind. We can’t understand why he turns over lamps, throws his dinner plate, pulls hair,
or bites. He does all these things with a smile and with no particular
aggression involved.
We took him to a doctor who wants to give him clonidine, which is blood pressure medicine.
I don’t understand how this will help him. What does it
have to do with his behavior problems?
Should he be taking something else, or anything at all?
Answer: Clonidine is a centrally acting alpha-blocker. As such, it has several activities other than
blood pressure. It is often used in drug withdrawals to block the side effects of withdrawal
and seems useful in treating withdrawal from most drugs: nicotine, heroin, estrogen, etc. It
can also cause mild sedation. I suspect the physician is seeking some of the central activity
of this drug.
