PLT Test Blog

Need a wizard, or your local doctor? I was intrigued to come across a recent paper on immune modulatory treatments for autism by a couple of doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children.   The lead author has interests in: ·       Autism spectrum disorders ·       Psychopharmacology ·       Developmental Disabilities ·       Williams syndrome ·       Angelman syndrome ·       Down syndrome Apparently, he is an internationally-recognized expert in the neurobiology and neuropsychopharmacology of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders including autistic disorder.  Sounds promising, hopefully we will learn something new. The paper is actually a review of existing drugs, with immunomodulatory properties, that have already been suggested to be repurposed for autism. The abstract was not very insightful, so I have highl...

As we have seen at various points in this blog, there is mounting evidence to support the use of steroids in autism, particularly in regressive autism. Since long-term steroid use has side effects, there have been no large long-term trials.  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, particularly from the US.  We saw a paper on Immunomodulatory Therapy, by Michael Chez, which discussed the benefits of Prednisone , a very cheap oral steroid. Immune Therapy in Autism: Historical Experience and Future Directions with immunomodulatory Therapy In the days before inhalers for asthma, it was low dose oral prednisone that kept many sufferers from an early death.  It did result in reduced height, but this is probably a price worth paying to stay alive. A paper was recently published by specialists at Harvard Medical School on the subject of steroids and regressive autism. Corticosteroid therapy in regressive autism: a retrospective study ofeffects on the Frequency Modulated Auditory E...