Verapamil use in Autism – Request for Case Reports from Parents
By Agnieszka Wroczyńska, MD, PhD,
Medical University of Gdansk, Poland
In June 2014 my son with severe autism was given verapamil as an emergency mast cell stabilizer according to Peter’s blog, as we run out of other medication ordered from abroad. This turned out to be a life changing moment for him and my family. Two days later his chronic diarrhea resolved completely and soon after we also saw improvements in other symptoms and behaviors.
Several months, blog entries and papers read later my son still uses verapamil and now also other medications targeting autism, most of them being included into Peter’s PolyPill. He is still significantly affected by ASD, but his quality of life improved much, thanks to this blog.
Recently I have visited a very open-minded pediatrician, the first one who suspected medical issues behind challenging behaviours in my son and she asked me about papers on verapamil use in ASD, possibly to include it into her clinical practice. Unfortunately I have nothing to recommend although the use of calcium channel blockers for autism had been suggested long before my son was born as in this paper written in 2004: “These findings hint at a potential mechanism that might underlie autism. Future studies will focus on the genetic analysis of Cav1.2 and other calcium channels in the disorder and the potential application of calcium channel blocker therapy” [1]. This did not happen and no clinical trials were done.
Calcium signalling role in ASD is well backed by science [2-5] as Peter described in many excellent posts here, but not a single case report of such treatment was published. That’s why I would like to invite readers who use or used verapamil (short or long term with or without effects) to jointly publish an article on this treatment in a peer-reviewed medical journal as a case series description.
According to what Peter suggested before, I wrote a questionnaire including basic clinical data and - if available - tests results suggested by Peter and Nat, as a first step to this article. I would really appreciate your contribution, comments or questions about this idea.
There is no deadline date so you are welcome to join if you start verapamil treatment for you or your child in the future. You may consider to do some lab tests according to the questionnaire then.
If you have not used verapamil, but would like to join this idea in other way, please feel free to contact me.
Before the collective article is ready let me quote a recent paper on another class of calcium channel blocking drugs in autism: “Given the excellent toxicity profile of dihydropyridine LTCC blockers, long-term off-label treatment of patients with ASD appears justified based on our robust in vitro findings.” [6]
If you have not used verapamil, but would like to join this idea in other way or just discuss autism treatment without participating in this case series report, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you!
Agnieszka Wroczyńska, MD, PhD
Medical University of Gdansk, Poland
verapamil.asd@gmail.com
The questionnaire can be downloaded from here:
The questionnaire filled with my son’s details as an example:
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