While drug therapy may help children with autism control bad behavior, scientists still do not know for certain if the drugs are safe.
The authors of this article reviewed all published research on the use of a type of drug therapy (atypical antipsychotics) to treat autism. Although many different drugs are used to treat autism, risperidone is the only one approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to treat autism. Most of the atypical antipsychotics (olanzapine, ziprasidone, quetiapine, and aripiprazole) can help children with autism with bad behavior but they do not treat the core problem of autism. Most of these drugs do cause weight gain. The drugs may also cause problems with the heart. The authors suggest that doctors be careful when giving these drugs to children.
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