Pharmaceuticals
Drug helps autistic children with aggression
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A new medication helps autistic children manage their aggressiveness.
The most recent numbers show as many as 1 in 500 people have autism. It is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects the functioning of the brain.
Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls and knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism's occurrence.
Based on statistics from the United States Department of Education and other governmental agencies, autism is growing at a rate of 10 percent to 17 percent each year. At these rates, the Autism Society of America estimates the prevalence of autism could reach 4 million Americans in the next decade.
Autism is a spectrum disorder. The symptoms and characteristics can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe. Although autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors, children and adults can exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity.
Behaviors may include:
- Insistence on sameness; resistance to change
- Difficulty in expressing needs; uses gestures or pointing instead of words
- Repeating words or phrases in place of normal, responsive language
- Laughing, crying, showing distress for reasons not apparent to others
- Prefers to be alone; aloof manner
- Tantrums
- Difficulty in mixing with others
- Little or no eye contact
- Inappropriate attachments to objects
- Apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain
- No real fears of danger
- Noticeable physical over-activity or extreme under-activity
- In some cases, aggressive and/or self-injurious behavior may be present.
Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins Hospital have found that one of the newer class of anti-psychotic medications is successful and well-tolerated for the treatment of serious behavioral disturbances associated with autism in children ages 5 to 17 years. The drug risperidone helps children with aggression and self-injury. Researchers randomly assigned 101 children either risperidone or a placebo for eight weeks. Using a strict definition of improvement, researchers found nearly 70 percent of children on risperidone were much, or very much improved at the end of the study. Only 12 percent of those in the placebo group experienced the same effect. Researchers say this is the largest positive effect of a medication ever observed in a study of children with autism. The drug was well-tolerated with few neurological side effects. Those side effects included weight gain, fatigue and drooling.
For more information
Kennedy Krieger Institute
707 North Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21205
(888) 554-2080
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