Active clinical trials for "Asperger Syndrome"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of memantine in pediatric (6-12 years old) patients with autism, Asperger's Disorder, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and to identify responders for participation in a follow-up randomized withdrawal study.

This study will examine the effectiveness of riluzole for treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Youth, Including those with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

This study is designed to examine the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for treating anxiety symptoms, social problems, and adaptive behavior deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders.

This study will be an open-label, 12-week trial of risperidone in subjects with Asperger's Disorder, according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) Criteria. The study has two arms, one involving pre- and post-treatment MRS studies, and one without MRS. The MRS arm will study 18-20 subjects ages 6 and above, with a target of 14 completing patients. For both arms, we plan to a enroll at total of 30 patients to achieve completion for 24 patients. The non-MRS arm of the study will include subjects 6-18 years of age, the bulk of which have completed the study as of the writing of this updated revision. Our hypotheses are that treatment of Asperger's patients with a low dose of risperidone will: decrease ratios of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine, phosphocreatine (Cr + PCr), and choline in the prefrontal lobe, and decrease the severity of negative symptoms and overall improve social behavior, and that the two will be correlated. Specific Aims The primary objectives of this trial are to: Further assess and investigate the utility of risperidone in the treatment Asperger's disorder. Assess the efficacy of risperidone in normalizing increased frontal lobe metabolites. Assess the efficacy of risperidone in normalizing symptoms in Asperger's disorder patients using standardized rating scales to assess the impact on negative symptoms and on social interaction. Determine whether risperidone's effect on clinical improvement of Asperger's disorder, i.e., negative symptoms, is correlated with normalization of frontal lobe metabolites Accrue safety and tolerability data on risperidone for this population of patients. This information could potentially be used to provide pilot data for a double blind trial

The purpose of this study is to develop a better tolerated and more effective pharmacologic treatment for individuals with Asperger's Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. This is an open-label investigation of aripiprazole in the management of the maladaptive behaviors of autistic disorder. We hypothesize that aripiprazole will be effective for reducing aggression and repetitive behavior.

This study is a pre-test, post-test single group design with follow-up at month three. Twenty-four individuals total will participate in this study with 6 participants in each of 4 cohorts. Participants and their parents will complete pre-test measures including both paper and pencil measures and a video-recording to assess the participant's social interaction skills and fluency. These adolescents will participate in both group therapy and peer generalization sessions once a week over the course of twelve weeks. Upon completion of the intervention, participants and parents will complete paper and pencil and video post-test measures. Participants will be encouraged to participate in one follow-up session where the paper and pencil and video measures will be completed again.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the process of development of autistic children, in a direct and indirect intervention context from mother´s response in Autism Behavior Checklist.

This study will examine whether DMSA, an oral chelating agent that removes mercury and other metals from the body, is beneficial for children with autism. DMSA is commonly used to treat autism, although it has never been tested in a controlled study and there is no proof that it helps children with the disorder. Support for its use is based on single-case reports of benefits of chelation with DMSA. This study will help determine whether or not DMSA is useful for treating autism. Children between 4 and 10 years of age with autism spectrum disorder who weigh at least 33 pounds, who have detectable, but not toxic, levels of mercury or lead in the blood, and who have not previously received chelation therapy may be eligible for this study. Participants complete a medical history, behavioral and psychological assessment and physical examination. Blood, hair, urine and stool samples are collected for testing. Because DMSA can remove minerals the body needs, such as zinc and iron, as well as the toxic lead and mercury, participants take a daily multivitamin supplement starting 1 month before beginning chelation therapy and continuing for the duration of treatment. After 1 month of the supplementation regimen, the children are assigned to receive DMSA or placebo for 12 weeks, divided into six 2-week cycles. They take the assigned drug 3 times a day on days 1, 2 and 3 of each cycle and continue the multivitamin every day. The children are seen in the clinic immediately before and after the first, third and sixth cycles. At each checkup, the parent or guardian answers a set of questions about the child's autism symptoms, physical health and medication side effects. Blood, urine and stool samples are collected for laboratory testing. ...

This study uses functional brain imaging and noninvasive brain stimulation techniques to study the brain basis of developmental disorders like Autism Spectrum Disorder and Asperger Disorder. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and recently approved FDA treatment of depression, Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) will be used to study the neurocircuitry of certain symptom clusters in developmental disorders.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) commonly experience behavioral challenges that may be improved with pharmacotherapy, including difficulties with sleep, attention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behavior, mood swings, self-injury, and aggression. While 34-58% of children with ASD take medication for such behaviors, there is wide practice variation nationally and a lack of evidence to support the use of most commonly prescribed agents. Complex clinical situations such as this where there is no clear "best choice" regarding which behaviors to target and which medications to use lend themselves well to the use of a Shared Decision Making (SDM) tool to ensure that well-informed parent preferences shape every treatment plan. The primary goal of this study is to modify a previously published decision aid about use of medication to manage challenging behaviors in children with autism to make it easy to implement in practice and then evaluate this version in terms of proximal decisional outcomes and parent/child outcomes 3 months later. Providers in a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric clinic will be enrolled and randomly allocated to intervention or control (treatment as usual) groups. Initially, providers randomized to the intervention group will test and refine the modified intervention. Once the intervention is finalized, eligible patients of participating providers will be enrolled in the randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the intervention. Following the trial, control group providers will be crossed over and receive the intervention. Both proximal decisional outcomes (e.g. parent decisional conflict, provider amount of SDM, parent knowledge of treatment options) and outcomes 3 months later (e.g. parenting stress, decisional conflict, and change in child behavioral symptoms) will be assessed. Approximately 10 providers and 240 of their patients with autism will be included in the study. Chart reviews, parental surveys, and recordings of provider-parent-patient interactions during the index visit will be collected at baseline (prior to physician allocation), during the intervention trial, and after the control group has crossed over. Between- and within-group analyses will examine factors associated with parental decisional conflict and whether the intervention produces significant improvements in outcomes over and above typical autism care. Analyses will include multiple linear regression modeling and general linear models / repeated measure models, accounting for data clustered by provider.