Research: Developing Drugs for Core Social and Communication Impairment in Autism

Authored by Posey, DJ, Erickson CA, and McDougle CJ in Child Adolesc Psychiatric Clin N Am, Volume 17, Issue 4, p. 787-801, (2008).

Article summary (posted Jan 21, 2009):

There are several drugs that are being studied to see if they may be able to treat the core social symptoms of autism.

Right now there are no drugs that are proven to treat the core social problems of autism. Risperidone is prescribed to treat autism, but it has only been shown to help behavior problems that may be symptoms of autism. Drugs that are being studied as possible treatments for social symptoms of autism include: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and atypical antipsychotics such as risperidone. This review article describes the problems that have slowed down the discovery of a drug to treat the social symptoms of autism. One of the big problems in drug discovery is that scientists still do not know the brain biology that causes autism. This problem may stem from the fact that autism is a spectrum disorder and thus the brains of people with autism may vary a great deal.

Links:

You can access the original abstract and the complete paper is sometimes available for free via Google Scholar (look for entries that say "PDF" or "HTML" on the right side of the page).
antipsychotic, atypical antipsychotic, autism, communication, drug, psychiatric, review article, Risperdal (risperidone), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), serotonin, social problems, treatment
Share |