Advances in Personalized Medicine to Treat Autism

Abstract

No drug has yet been approved to treat the core symptoms of autism. For over half a century attempts have been made to repurpose existing drugs to treat autism. Clinical trials go back to the 1970s. Even in these early “failed” trials there usually were those who responded to the treatment. Personalized medicine seeks to treat just one person and accepts that behind an autism diagnosis lie a myriad of possible dysfunctions. The usual attempts to find a one-size-fits-all therapy are doomed from the start. Great steps forward are possible be reevaluating the existing research and past clinical trials to identify a personalized polytherapy to treat cognitive dysfunction, aggression, lack of speech, sound sensitivity, anxiety, stereotypy and other problem areas. Each individual with severe autism should have their own polytherapy. Some elements will be lifelong, while others are likely to change as the child get older, approaches puberty and then adulthood. Autism is dynamic and new challenges may well appear and then therapy needs to be adjusted.