Active clinical trials for "Child Development Disorders, Pervasive"

52-week, open-label extension study of double-blind study ACP-103-069 to determine the long-term safety and tolerability of pimavanserin for the treatment of irritability associated with ASD in children and adolescents (aged 5 to 17 years). ACP-103-069 is a 6-week, randomized, double-blind, fixed-dose, placebo controlled, parallel group study of pimavanserin in children and adolescents with irritability associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

"Social brain" refers to brain regions dedicated to processing social information and enabling us to recognize and evaluate others' mental states. The social brain hypothesis suggests that our brains evolve to navigate complex social systems. The social brain is hypothesized to consist of a distributed network including the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices (dmPFC and vmPFC), ACC and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the amygdala, the orbital frontal cortex (OFC), and the fusiform gyrus (FG), TPJ, inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), and the insula. Each region serves distinct role while works together to support social processing, including perceiving, interpreting, and generating responses to the intentions, dispositions, and behaviors of others.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by language delay, impaired social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. Its manifestation varies among individuals due to genetic and environmental factors. Technology-based interventions, such as robots, serious games, virtual reality and immersive room, have shown better results in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of ASD. Visual attention, which is often deficient in individuals with ASD, is a focus in these interventions, as it can aid stimulus processing. Virtual reality offers a more ecological environment for such interventions. In this study, it has been demonstrated the effectiveness of virtual reality training by comparing the performance of an ASD group delivering treatment through the immersive room with a control group delivering traditional treatment. Fifteen children with ASD between the ages of 5 and 10 years, with IQs between 55 and 85 will be included in the trial and, following an assessment related to visual attention processes, will be randomly assigned to the control group and the experimental group. The trial participants will, first, undergo structured sessions to foster or increase the receptive area related to the stimuli to which they will be subjected during the training.

This study is a prospective, two-center, randomized, single-blind controlled trial to enroll 200 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The investigators hope to further explore the effectiveness of accelerated continuous theta-burst stimulation (a-cTBS) over the left primary motor cortex (M1) to improve core symptoms in ASD children based on a previous open-label clinical trial.

This study has two purposes: Aim 1: To develop a Telehealth Early Intervention Program (TEIP) for children with ASD that will be carried out by parents at home when interact with their children; and to train parents in delivering developmental and behavioral techniques to their children. The participating families will be randomized in parallel to treatment and comparison groups for teaching the knowledge and techniques: (1) Treatment group: providing the training of TEIP for parents via telehealth modalities as they learn critical skills with their child with the goal of increasing multidimensional child developments. Intervention provider will provide the training for parent-child dyad interaction to work with parents to implement these strategies at home environment; and (2) Comparison group: provide general care consultation of child development for parents. Aim 2: To evaluate this program's effectiveness by measuring changes in a child's developments and behaviors. Investigator will evaluate child outcomes on the symptoms of ASD and multidimensional developmental functioning. Furthermore, investigator will measure the changes in the parent's knowledge and behaviors of parent-child interaction. Moreover, investigator will determine if parental participation in the intervention is associated with an improvement in parenting competences and decreased levels of stress.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of folinic acid in the treatment of language problems in children with autism spectrum disorder. Folinic acid, also known as leucovorin, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to decrease side effects during cancer chemotherapy. Folinic acid may be helpful in treating language problems in children with autism spectrum disorder, but this is not known. Therefore, folinic acid is an investigational new drug for this study. Investigators will enroll a total of 134 participants across all three centers, over a 5 year period and participation will last between 12 and 24 weeks.

This study will investigate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of L1-79 in participants aged 12-21 years who have been diagnosed with ASD with a score of >/= 70 on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II), and a score of >/= 4 on the Clinical Global Impression of Severity of Illness (CGI-S) weighted for socialization.

This is a randomized, placebo-controlled study but all study participants will receive the active study medication at some point during the study for at least 12 weeks, and some children with receive CBD for the entire study.

Difficulties in social interactions are the core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are characterized by abnormal social perception, mainly concerning eye gaze. Anatomo-functional abnormalities within the superior temporal sulcus (STS), a key region of the social brain, have been described in ASD. The investigators had recently shown that it is possible to modulate the neural activity of the STS with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with an impact on social perception, measured by eye-tracking. In the context of ASD, stimulation of the STS with excitatory TMS could lead to an improvement in social perception, which would open up new therapeutic strategies. The purpose of this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study is to apply a therapeutic TMS protocol (10 daily sessions) at the right STS in young adults with ASD to improve their social behavior, objectively measured using eye-tracking.

The social cognitive deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are related to an imbalance in excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission, specifically a deficit in the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. The investigators have used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques to measure GABA in specific brain regions and have demonstrated that a single dose of gabapentin increases GABA in brain regions associated with social cognition. This study will use a biomarker-driven approach to investigate gabapentin to correct the underlying imbalance of neurotransmitters and improve the core social cognitive deficits in ASD. By using a brain-based biomarker (GABA) that is quantifiable and measurable, the investigators can target this biomarker directly and measure the impact of the treatment. This will help with the future development of targeted therapies for ASD and provide an early marker of response to aid in the selection of individuals more likely to respond to various treatments. The specific aims of this study are to: 1) determine if treatment with gabapentin sustainably increases GABA in the right anterior insula (RAI; an area of the brain involved in social cognition), 2) determine if response of RAI GABA levels to a single dose challenge of gabapentin predicts a sustained response after treatment, and 3) determine if the increase in GABA levels with gabapentin treatment translates into clinically measurable improvement in social cognition. The investigators will conduct an 8-week open-label clinical trial of gabapentin in 40 adolescents (age 13-17 years) with ASD, using MRS before and after treatment to measure GABA in the RAI (the primary outcome for the study). Before the trial, a single dose challenge of gabapentin will be used to evaluate the immediate response of GABA levels in the RAI, to determine if this predicts later response. A secondary outcome will be the clinical effects of gabapentin on social cognition. This study can demonstrate for the first time that neuroimaging biomarkers can be used to guide treatment of social cognition deficits seen in ASD and that the excitatory-inhibitory imbalance in neurotransmitters in ASD can be pharmacologically targeted. This can provide a rational basis for pharmacological treatment of the core social deficits of ASD, providing direct benefit to participants in the study as well as indirect benefit to countless patients in the future.