Placebo (sugar pill) effects seen in some studies of autism drug therapy need to be explored more, and may be helpful for autism therapy.

In placebo-controlled studies, patients on drug therapy are compared to patients taking a placebo. Often the patient and the researcher do not know who gets the placebo (double-blind). Usually researchers expect that the placebo will be a control, and will have no effect. But placebo groups have shown improvements in several studies of brain disorders in children. Secretin studies are a good example. From early studies, researchers thought that secretin may have been helpful for people with autism. But later, 10 placebo-controlled studies showed that secretin was no better than placebo. In those studies, the groups given placebo showed improvements as well. Researchers are trying to understand why some people taking placebo show improvements. They hope to understand this so that they can find ways to help people use less medication.