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A specific antioxidant supplement may be an effective therapy forsome features of autism , according to a pilot trial from the Stanford University School ofMedicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital that involved 31children with the disorder. The antioxidant, called N-Acetylcysteine, or NAC, loweredirritability in children with autism as well as reducing thechildren's repetitive behaviors. The researchers emphasized thatthe findings must be confirmed in a larger trial before NAC can berecommended for children with autism. Irritability affects 60 to 70 percent of children with autism."We're not talking about mild things: This is throwing, kicking,hitting, the child needing to be restrained," said Antonio Hardan,MD, the primary author of the new study. "It can affect learning,vocational activities and the child's ability to participate inautism therapies." The study appears in the June 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Hardan is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioralsciences at Stanford and director of the Autism and DevelopmentalDisabilities Clinic at Packard Children's. Stanford is filing apatent for the use of NAC in autism, and one of the study authorshas a financial stake in a company that makes and sells the NACused in the trial. Finding new medications to treat autism and its symptoms is a highpriority for researchers. Currently, irritability, mood swings andaggression, all of which are considered associated features ofautism, are treated with second-generation antipsychotics. Butthese drugs cause significant side effects, including weight gain,involuntary motor movements and metabolic syndrome, which increases diabetes risk. By contrast, side effects of NAC are generally mild, withgastrointestinal problems such as constipation , nausea, diarrhea and decreased appetite being the most common. The state of drug treatments for autism's core features, such associal deficits, language impairment and repetitive behaviors, isalso a major problem. "Today, in 2012, we have no effectivemedication to treat repetitive behavior such as hand flapping orany other core features of autism," Hardan said. NAC could be thefirst medication available to treat repetitive behavior in autism -if the findings hold up when scrutinized further. The study tested children with autism ages 3 to 12. They werephysically healthy and were not planning any changes in theirestablished autism treatments during the trial. In a double-blindstudy design, children received NAC or a placebo for 12 weeks. TheNAC used was a pharmaceutical-grade preparation donated by theneutraceutical manufacturer BioAdvantex Pharma. Subjects wereevaluated before the trial began and every four weeks during thestudy using several standardized surveys that measure problembehaviors, social behaviors, autistic preoccupations and drug sideeffects. During the 12-week trial, NAC treatment decreased irritabilityscores from 13.1 to 7.2 on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, awidely used clinical scale for assessing irritability. The changeis not as large as that seen in children taking antipsychotics."But this is still a potentially valuable tool to have beforejumping on these big guns," Hardan said. In addition, according to two standardized measures of autismmannerisms and stereotypic behavior, children taking NAC showed adecrease in repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. "One of the reasons I wanted to do this trial was that NAC is beingused by community practitioners who focus on alternative,non-traditional therapies," Hardan said. "But there is no strongscientific evidence to support these interventions. Somebody needsto look at them." Hardan cautioned that the NAC for sale as a dietary supplement atdrugstores and grocery stores differs in some important respectsfrom the individually packaged doses of pharmaceutical-grade NACused in the study, and that the over-the-counter version may notproduce the same results. "When you open the bottle from thedrugstore and expose the pills to air and sunlight, it getsoxidized and becomes less effective," he said. Although the study did not test how NAC works, the researchersspeculated on two possible mechanisms of action. NAC increases thecapacity of the body's main antioxidant network, which someprevious studies have suggested is deficient in autism. Inaddition, other research has suggested that autism is related to animbalance in excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in thebrain. NAC can modulate the glutamatergic family of excitatoryneurotransmitters, which might be useful in autism. The scientists are now applying for funding to conduct a large,multicenter trial in which they hope to replicate their findings. "This was a pilot study," Hardan said. "Final conclusions cannot bemade before we do a larger trial." Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Aluminum Sliding Glass Doors , China Aluminum Sliding Windows, and more. For more , please visit Aluminum Awning Windows today!
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