By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com
August 16, 2005
A drug used to treat schizophrenia in adults may help autistic kids with aggressive behavior. This is according to an article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Researchers studied the drug called resperidone in 63 autistic youths ages five to 17. The patients were mostly boys and all exhibited aggressive, disruptive behavior.
All the kids were treated with the drug for eight weeks to make sure they got better. Researchers then gave them the drug for another 16 weeks. Most of the autistic children got even better.
In fact 83 percent were much or very much improved in their behavior. Nine percent improved a bit and only eight percent got worse.
Without the drug, the untreated kids quickly returned to their old ways.
While the drug did help, it also caused some weight gain and it needs to be studied over long time periods.
