autism | drug therapy | glutamate | memantine | off-label | PDD | pervasive development disorder | ritual | routine
While memantine may help with some of the problem behaviors associated with autism, more research is needed.
This review article describes the use of the brain drug memantine to treat pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Memantine acts on the brain chemical glutamate, which is known to be involved in brain growth. Some genetic studies point to glutamate as having a role in autism. Memantine drug therapy may be most helpful with regards to routines and rituals that are observed in some people with autism. The authors found five open label studies and one case report on the use of memantine to treat autism in children and adults.
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