A family was outraged after an Enfield pharmacy gave them the wrong medication for their autistic child.

Christopher Suden, of Linden Gardens in Forty Hill, Enfield, is dependent on his parents, Neale and Kerry for everything.

However, the 24-year-old had a nasty shock when he was given the wrong drug from Boots pharmacy in Enfield Town shopping precinct.

Instead of his regular anti-psychotics, Mr Suden was "horrified and disgusted" when his son was given a drug to help control Alzheimer’s disease.

Neale Suden told the Enfield Independent: “Our son is fully dependent on us and I went to the pharmacy to collect his medication from the pharmacy in Enfield Town.

“When I picked it up, the outside packaging said Olanzapine, which is what he usually takes daily to help with his anxiety.

“But when I took the medication out the packaging, it was labelled with a slightly different name. At the time I thought they must have changed the name because that has happened before and they looked very similar to his normal medication.

“The drug was also dissolvable, which is the same as Chris’s, because he cannot swallow normal pills.”

After taking the drug for three days, Mr and Mrs Suden noticed a major difference in Christopher’s behaviour and knew something was not right.

Mr Suden added: “We gave him three days worth of the pills but then I realised that something was abnormal. My son looked so distant and completely spaced out. He was also not eating his food, which is very rare in Chris’ case.

“He gets very, very anxious and the only way to tell what is wrong is by looking at him or the way he acts as he finds talking difficult. I knew at this point, something was wrong and I took the medication back to Boots.”

Realising their error, Mr Suden claims the company were apologetic but he was highly concerned for his son’s health.

He said: “I am horrified and disgusted by what has happened. This is a fundamental error made by the pharmacist and could have done serious damage to my son. If he had taken the medication for a week, who knows what might have happened.

“With his condition, a week without his daily anti-psychotic drug would have been incredibly serious. This made me think that if this sloppy service happened to us, other people might not be getting the drugs they need or worse, taking the wrong drug.”

A Boots spokeswoman said: "At Boots UK, customer care is at the heart of what we do, so we are treating this dispensing incident very seriously and are undertaking a thorough investigation to understand exactly what happened."