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Galantamine may be effective in treating autistic disorderhttp://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/325/7377/1422/a?etoc
LettersGalantamine may be effective in treating autistic disorderEDITOR No specific drugs seem to improve autism significantly. Desipramine, dextroamphetamine, clonidine, neuroleptics, and methylphenidate are reported to be only slightly effective but also to have possible severe adverse effects.2-4 We conducted a placebo controlled, double blind crossover randomised controlled trial investigating the efficacy of galantamine in autistic disorders. The participants were 20 boys attending an outpatient clinic (mean age 7.4 (SD 3.2) years; mean intelligence quotient (IQ) 68 (11) on the Leiter international performance scale of the revised Wechsler intelligence scale for children). They were without medical or neurological illnesses, had autistic disorder diagnosed by ICD-10 criteria, had been unsuccessfully treated with methylphenidate, clonidine, desipramine, and neuroleptics for more than six weeks, and had not received drug treatment for at least two weeks. Written informed consent was obtained. Participants were included in the study if their irritability, motor activity, eye contact, and expressive language (maximum 10 word vocabulary) were inadequate for their developmental level. When parent and teacher scores were combined, mean scores were slightly lower during treatment with galantamine than during treatment with placebo for irritability classified by ratings of the aberrant behaviour checklist5 (galantamine 11.5 (7.6) v placebo 15.1 (5.4), P=0.039), hyperactivity (17.2 (12.8) v 21.7 (15.4), P=0.038), inadequate eye contact (placebo 7.6 (3.2) v 8.4 (5.2), P=0.049), and inappropriate speech (4.7 (3.1) v 6.2 (2.4), P=0.045). Clinicians' scores of videotaped sessions using the modified children's psychiatric rating scale for autism were not significantly different between galantamine and placebo. None of the subjects seemed to have headaches or stomach aches, although the reporting of such side effects was limited by participants' expressive language and social skills. Galantamine seems to be not only effective in treating Alzheimer's disease
but may also be also moderately effective in the short term treatment
of irritability in children with autistic disorder.
Other related articles in BMJ:
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 "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth." -- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901 "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820 "What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?" -- Sandy Gottstein "Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?" -- Sandy Gottstein |
Wilcock
et al report galantamine to be an effective and well tolerated drug in
Alzheimer's disease.