New Research Of Children's Autism

New Research Of Children's Autism.
An speculative drug for autism did not pick up levels of lethargy and social withdrawal in children who took it, but it did show some other benefits, a budding study finds in May 2013. Children on arbaclofen did improve on an overall measure of autism starkness when compared to kids taking an inactive placebo, said lead researcher Dr Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, an associate professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He is to present the findings Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in Spain.

One of 88 children in the United States is now diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, the parasol call for complex brain phenomenon disorders marked by problems in social interaction and communication. Veenstra-VanderWeele focused on evaluating the public improvement with the drug because earlier research had suggested it could help. However, one of the earlier studies did not analogize the drug to a placebo, but simply measured improvement in those who took the drug.

In the new study, Veenstra-VanderWeele and his line-up assigned 150 people with autism, aged 5 to 21, to take the cure-all or a placebo, without knowing which group they were in, for eight weeks. The participants had been diagnosed with autistic disorder, Asperger's syndrome or another interconnected condition known as pervasive developmental disorder. In all, 130 finished the study.