HALOPERIDOL AND ATTENTIONAL LEARNING IN AUTISTISM

芬氟拉明治疗婴儿自闭症的疗效最近得到了一项研究 大量的宣传。这似乎是一种很有希望的治疗方法。 人口。然而，精心设计的研究和仔细的监测 为了确定这种药物的作用，需要进行住院治疗。 我们希望对短期和长期疗效和安全性进行批判性评估 芬氟拉明及其对自闭症儿童学习的影响 将它们与氟哌啶醇和安慰剂进行比较。氟哌啶醇被选为 一种对照药物，因为它对行为症状和学习有影响 以及它的安全性在我们单位进行了一段时间的系统调查： 我们已经证明了它在统计学上和临床上都是优越的。 在精心设计的研究中给自闭症儿童服用安慰剂 在双盲条件下。我们选择的设计是这样的， 每个孩子都将充当自己的控制者。儿童(N=42；年龄2至7岁 年)将使用DSM-III婴儿标准进行仔细诊断 自闭症，存在完整综合征；那些自闭症病因已知的人(Axis 三)将不包括在试验中，因此增加了 样品的均质性。短期研究将持续一段时间 14周和3年以上的长期研究。无论是短期还是长期 研究、任务、措施、策略和量表的使用将与我们的 之前对氟哌啶醇的研究。我们有专业知识和经验 为了进行这种类型的研究，人口和所需的 包括自动化实验室在内的设施。我们还展示了 过去，我们能够达到100%的药物依从性，并有 有能力按时完成一项研究。比较两种药物的疗效 不同的作用，如芬氟拉明和氟哌啶醇，可能有助于我们 描述每个人的响应者，从而阐明这一点 异型综合症。 该项目也是对 药物引起的运动障碍。这是唯一有前景可供研究的项目 这些不正常的非自愿运动在一个有着高 与长期服药无关的运动异常基线率 行政管理。

The efficacy of fenfluramine in infantile autism has received recently a great deal of publicity. It appears to be a promising treatment in this population. However, well designed research and careful monitoring in an inpatient setting is required in order to determine the role of this drug. We wish to assess critically the short- and long-term efficacy and safety of fenfluramine and its effects on learning in autistic children, and to compare them to those of haloperidol and placebo. Haloperidol is chosen as a control drug, because its effects on behavioral symptoms and on learning and its safety were systematically investigated for some time in our unit: we have demonstrated that it is both statistically and clinically superior to placebo in autistic children when administered in well designed studies under double-blind conditions. The design we have chosen is such, that each child will serve as his own control. The children (N=42; ages 2 to 7 years) will be carefully diagnosed using DSM-III criteria for Infantile Autism, Full Syndrome Present; those with known causes for autism (Axis III) will not be included in the experiment, thus increasing the homogeneity of the sample. The short-term study will be over a period of 14 weeks and the long-term study over 3 years. In both short and long-term studies, tasks, measures, strategies and scales will be used as in our previous research with haloperidol. We have the expertise and experience to conduct this type of research, the population and the required facilities which include an automated laboratory. We also have shown in the past that we are able to achieve 100% drug compliance and have the ability to complete a study on time, as scheduled. Comparing 2 drugs of different actions, such as fenfluramine and haloperidol, may aid us in delineating responders to each and, thus, to shed some light on this heterogenous syndrome. This project also represents a major contribution to research in drug-induced dyskinesias. It is the only prospective project to study these abnormal involuntary movements in a population which has a high baseline rate of abnormal movements unrelated to long-term drug administration.