Preliminary results from a placebo-controlled trial of the antibiotic minocycline in children with fragile X syndrome suggest the drug alleviates some aspects of the disorder, according to research presented Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Toronto.
The past few years have seen an unprecedented number of clinical trials for experimental drugs to treat autism-related disorders, most notably for fragile X syndrome. But as the trials progress, scientists are calling for better methods to measure the drugs’ effectiveness.
Clinical trials for fragile X drugs should include a behavioral therapy component, says a parent of a child with the disorder.
Publication bias is making antidepressants look like a better option for treating autism than they really are, according to a study published last week in Pediatrics.
In the last three years, autism researchers have gone from sequencing single genes to whole exomes, as highlighted at the Translational Neuroscience Symposium in Switzerland last week.
Aripiprazole, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat irritability in children with autism, may also improve their overall health-related quality of life, according to a retrospective analysis of two clinical trials. The results were published 21 March in Clinical Therapeutics.
Early intensive intervention is the only therapy that has been shown to be effective in young children with autism, according to a 2011 review of autism treatments commissioned by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. But researchers are just beginning to tease out what they refer to as its ‘active ingredients:’ why the treatment works, which elements are essential and why it fails to help some children.
A new clinical trial, conducted entirely online, could provide a model for how to quickly and efficiently test some potential treatments for autism.
A new meta-analysis shows that less than two percent of participants in studies of behavioral interventions for autism are adults.
Lithium alleviates the symptoms of fragile X syndrome in mice in part by normalizing protein synthesis in the brain, according to a study published 29 December in Neurobiology of Disease.