PLT Test Blog

Memantine (Namenda/ Ebixa) is an Alzheimer’s drug that has been used off-label in autism for many years; but does it actually work? More than a thousand people with autism have completed clinical trials and yet more trials are in progress.  A few years ago, at the FDA’s request, the producer of the drug, Forest Laboratories, funded two clinical trials enrolling 903 children with autism.  The results were never fully published because the trials were deemed to have failed to find any positive effect and a note to reflect this is included in each pack of Namenda. A quick look at ClinicalTrials.gov website shows yet more autism trials in the pipeline. What is going on? When Dr Chez made a trial in 2007 he found Memantine to be effective; he has since moved on to stem cell therapy which he also finds to be effective. The latest study to be published includes Dr Hardan from Stanford, who published that study showing NAC to be effective in autism.  This time his study shows no...

  Much of this blog to date has been connected with aspects related to the neurotransmitter GABA.   It did get rather complicated, but at least for me, it has been highly rewarding. I have identified treatable dysfunctions in Monty, aged 10 with ASD, using Bumetanide and now Clonazepam. It is also clear that a group of people with autism also benefit from treatment with R-baclofen, a potent GABA B receptor agonist. R-baclofen/Arbaclofen and Arbaclofen Placarbil are not commercially available.   The commercially available drug Baclofen contains R-Baclofen and another substance that, in-effect, works to oppose it and so may be much less effective. Based on the successful results of this investigation into GABA-related interventions, it would therefore make sense to look in detail at Glutamate, the other neurotransmitter that appears to be dysfunctional in many types of autism. As with GABA dysfunctions, there are already are some existing treatments for glutamate dysfunct...