ATLANTA — A pill that’s already on the market is providing hope to parents of adult children with autism.
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 36 children are on the spectrum.
Scientists believed the drug Lamotrigine – commonly prescribed to treat seizures – would improve neurological development.
The research is still in its very early stages but is already showing promise for one local family with a loved one with autism.
Taylor Vickers’ son Jordan is now 29 years old. He lives at home where his mother works hard to integrate him into daily life.
“Jordan is our son. He’s our only son. And he was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old,” Vickers told Channel 2′s Fred Blankenship. “Overall, his autism has been very challenging. He can get very agitated and frustrated and you can have meltdowns.”
Jordan also recently started suffering from seizures. So, a doctor prescribed him Lamotrigine.
“Seizures are very scary, but they’re very scary when you’re a six-foot-two man, you know, dropping to the ground,” Vickers said.
Lamotrigine is a drug being studied in Germany as a potential “cure” to symptoms that affect mood and behavior in some who have autism.
“We are interested in how a brain decides that it’s a brain cell,” said Dr. Moritz Mall with the German Cancer Research Center.
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During neurological research, they came across a connection between one gene that affects people who are on the spectrum.
“Actually, for us, it was kind of stumbling upon this,” Mall said.
So, they put it to the test -- studying changes in human neurons they generated in a lab and mice genetically altered with those neurons.
What they found was a change in activity and behavior.
That’s something Vickers told Blankenship that she noticed before learning about this research.
“The first thing that I noticed was that it did stabilize his mood. There was more calmness,” Vickers said. “We have even noticed an increase in language, which at 29, is pretty it’s pretty great.”
Dr. Mindy Scheitauer is a psychologist at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta. She believes additional help managing behavioral issues would be a benefit to some who are on the spectrum.
“There’s very limited medications that are approved for use of individuals with autism and those that are approved, focus more on things like irritability and kind of comorbid symptoms,” Scheitauer said.
However, she adds not everyone needs medication. In fact, people who identify as autistic often have special abilities.
“Some individuals with autism very much have strengths that come from their symptoms,” Scheitauer said.
Such is the case for Brett and Louise Samsky’s son, Connor.
“We were told that two years old, he may not get through high school, to the part where he has a full-time job at 23 years old,” Brett Samsky said.
While traditional therapy has worked for their family, they said an approved medication would have been something they would have considered.
“Oftentimes children with autism have a difficult time communicating,” Louise Samsky. “If a medication could help with those things, I think it would tremendously help development for a child.”
That’s something Vickers is one step closer to seeing in her son Jordan.
“I want him to just have a full and happy life, and people who love him and understand him and accept him for who he is,” Vickers said.
“So, the most important things,” Blankenship told her.
“That is the most important thing, yeah,” Vickers said.
It’s important to point out, this research is focused on mutations in only one gene.
Researchers told us they are now planning the details of a clinical trial including funding and are getting patients to take part in it.
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