How scarey. Hang in there. You both WILL get through this. I have a friend who's 9 year old son was diagnosed with depression and it turned out to be linked to a servere allergy to sugar. She has decided to go with herbs and accupuncture treatments, which appear to be working. I'm not saying you should do this too, I'm just encouraging you to look at the whole picture and listen to what the doctor says, and temper that with your own, gut level instincts. It may be your child will need medication for a while because the depression is severe, but that doesn't necessarily mean forever. His diet may be a problem. Just take it a step at a time, love him, and remind yourself you will all get through this.

does he have any kind of regular counseling now? Through school or privately? My son is an aspie too and has gone through periods of severe depression when younger. Counseling helped and he did take antidepressants for a couple of years. Long term I think counseling/behavior mod programs are the most beneficial for most kids, but sometimes they need a little extra help (pharma, herbal, etc).

I tend to be opposed to anti-depressants as a permanent solution to a problem, but they certainly serve as a good short-term tool, if you really need something to quickly pull him out of it. I also suffered depression as a kid, and have dozens of physical scars to remind me of that daily. It is not pleasant, but perhaps with the right combination of psychotherapy, meds, and/or alternate therapies, you can find a happy balance to get him through this time.

Also, have you considered sports or athletics of some sort? I think that a lot of kids who deal with aggression (not sure if yours is one of them, but a lot of ours are) just need a place to get really physical to help release some of that energy, rather than have it turn inward.

Best of luck to you.