Khaberni - A recent study showed that a drug originally developed to treat Alzheimer's disease might help improve social communication skills in adolescents with autism.
A team from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston conducted a trial involving 42 adolescents, approximately 13 years old, to evaluate the effect of the drug "Memantine" (also known as "Ebixa") on autism symptoms. (This drug is typically used to treat Alzheimer's patients who do not respond to conventional treatments, by blocking the effect of glutamate in the brain, a natural amino acid that is one of the most important neurotransmitters).
After 12 weeks of treatment, researchers observed that more than half of the participants who took "Memantine" showed a significant improvement in social communication skills, compared to only 20% in the group that took a placebo.
The researchers found that the likelihood of responding to treatment was 4.8 times higher among adolescents who took "Memantine".
The study also showed that the drug was more effective in adolescents who had high levels of glutamate, which is believed to play a role in the development of autism symptoms such as communication difficulties and hypersensitivity to sounds and pain.
The researchers noted that the results show that "Memantine" could be a promising therapeutic option for a large portion of autism patients, with further clinical studies needed to confirm the results.
However, the study was not without limitations, as it predominantly included white participants and did not include adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities, which may affect the ability to generalize the results to all groups.
The study was published in the JAMA Open Network.
