The Use of Medications Approved for Alzheimer’s Disease in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review
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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 1 in 68 children in the United States. Even though it is a common disorder, only two medications (risperidone and aripiprazole) are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat symptoms associated with ASD. However, these medications are approved to treat irritability, which is not a core symptom of ASD. A number of novel medications, which have not been approved by the FDA to treat ASD have been used off-label in some studies to treat ASD symptoms, including medications approved for Alzheimer's disease. Interestingly, some of these studies are high-quality, double-blind, placebo-controlled (DBPC) studies. This article systematically reviews studies published through April, 2014, which examined the use of Alzheimer's medications in ASD, including donepezil (seven studies, two were DBPC, five out of seven reported improvements), galantamine (four studies, two were DBPC, all reported improvements), rivastigmine (one study reporting improvements), tacrine (one study reporting improvements), and memantine (nine studies, one was DBPC, eight reported improvements). An evidence-based scale was used to rank each medication. Collectively, these studies reported improvements in expressive language and communication, receptive language, social interaction, irritability, hyperactivity, attention, eye contact, emotional lability, repetitive or self-stimulatory behaviors, motor planning, disruptive behaviors, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, lethargy, overall ASD behaviors, and increased REM sleep. Reported side effects are reviewed and include irritability, gastrointestinal problems, verbal or behavioral regression, headaches, irritability, rash, tremor, sedation, vomiting, and speech problems. Both galantamine and memantine had sufficient evidence ranking for improving both core and associated symptoms of ASD. Given the lack of medications approved to treat ASD, further studies on novel medications, including Alzheimer's disease medications, are needed.
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Several recent studies document first promising results for cholinergic stimulation and oxytocin application in ASD.
“Several recent studies document first promising results for cholinergic stimulation (150) and oxytocin application (151).”
From Can Bayesian Theories of Autism Spectrum Disorder Help Improve Clinical Practice? (2016) · cites this paper as [150]
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- Authors
- Rossignol, D. A., & Frye, R. E.
- Affiliations
- Arkansas Children's Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rossignol, Daniel A.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Pediatrics
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2014-08-22
- Volume
- 2
- Pages
- 87-87
- ISSN
- 2296-2360 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4141213
- OpenAlex
- W2134780225
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Pediatrics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, off-label drug use, donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, tacrine, memantine, irritability, cholinesterase inhibitors, NMDA receptor antagonists, adverse effects, symptom improvement
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