Research summaries for autism therapy: cholinergic

definition of cholinergic: Type of neurotransmitter system that is involved in learning, short-term memory, arousal, and reward. Some psychotropic medications used to treat people with autism affect the cholinergic system. One example of such a medication is memantine. Memantine has been reported to have helped some children with autism feel less irritable. Memantine was also reported to have improved speech and behavior for people with autism.

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Memantine therapy may help people with autism.

Drugs such as memantine are normally used to treat Alzheimer'??s disease (cholinergic drugs). This is a small report on the use of memantine therapy in four patients (children and adults) with autism. The patients received 20 mg memantine daily for four weeks. Patients did not seem to have headaches or stomachaches. The author found that treatment with memantine helped the patients feel less irritable. Read more...

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