Drug therapy in autism: a present and future perspective.
Journal Title: Pharmacological Reports - Year 2012, Vol 64, Issue 6
Abstract
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, with a multifactorial etiology, characterized by severe abnormalities in communications, social awareness and skills, and the presence of restrictive and stereotyped patterns of behaviors. It is traditionally considered a "static" encephalopathic disorder without any specific cure and few effective biomedical interventions. There are various factors which are involved in the etiopathogenesis of autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) such as impaired immune responses, neuroinflammation, abnormal neurotransmission, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, environmental toxins and stressors. The autism is often associated with a number of genetic disorders such as fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, epilepsy and Down syndrome. The recent approaches to autism treatment included various non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapy such as food supplementation, detoxification, treatment of neuroinflammation, immunologic treatments and psychotropic medications, which are found to be effective in treating various behavioral symptoms of autism. In current practice, there is no curative treatment for autism but the recommended treatment for autism involves educational therapies: speech therapy, sensory integration therapy, auditory therapy. There are classes of different pharmacological agents which are found to be effective in improving behavioral symptoms of ASD such as neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors (fluoxetine), tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine), anticonvulsants (lamotrigine), atypical antipsychotics (clozapine), acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (rivastigmine), etc. New classes of drugs with novel mechanisms of action should be there so that this disorder will become less prevalent in the future.
Authors and Affiliations
Baldeep Kumar, Ajay Prakash, Rakesh Sewal, Bikash Medhi, Manish Modi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP135730
- DOI -
- Views 106
- Downloads 0
Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of a sulfated polysaccharide isolated from the green seaweed Caulerpa cupressoides.
Background: Red and brown algae sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) have been widely investigated as antinociceptive and/or anti-inflammatory agents; however, no description of these biological properties concerning green alg...
Role of silent polymorphisms within the dopamine D1 receptor associated with schizophrenia on D1-D2 receptor hetero-dimerization.
Within the coding region of the dopamine D(1) receptor (D(1)R), two synonymous polymorphisms, D(1)R(G198A) and D(1)R(G1263), have been identified and postulated to correlate with the schizophrenia phenotype. Binding stud...
Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in platelets: how is it regulated and what is it doing there?
Platelets express the endothelial form of the nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and generate NO. However, in contrast to eNOS in endothelial cells, eNOS in platelets is largely Ca(2+)-independent and the activity is regulated...
Oroxylin A, a classical natural product, shows a novel inhibitory effect on angiogenesis induced by lipopolysaccharide.
Background: There is an obvious relationship among angiogenesis and inflammation. From previous study, we learn that oroxylin A possesses anti-angiogenic activity in vitro and in ovo. It also has an inhibitory effect on...
L-NAME in the cardiovascular system - nitric oxide synthase activator?
L-arginine analogues are widely used inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity both in vitro and in vivo, with N(ω)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) being at the head. On the one hand, acute and chronic L-...