The drug is bumetanide. According to the university hospital, this drug has a beneficial effect on the brains of children who have difficulty processing information.
Influencing stimulus balance
The drug is normally prescribed for people with high blood pressure, but children with autism also benefit from it. Their stimulus balance is often not optimal, the brain is over- or under-stimulated. “The researchers show that bumetanide can influence the stimulus balance by reducing the chlorine concentration in the brain cells,” according to Amsterdam UMC.
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The drug does not work for every child with autism. The researchers have therefore developed an algorithm that can predict which children will benefit from this drug. They do this by means of a brain video, a so-called EEG. “We have found a method in which we can see quite precisely for which child this drug will work,” says child psychiatrist Hilgo Bruining. “It must therefore be done with just prescribing something for children with autism symptoms.”
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No serious side effects
Bruining points out that bumetanide does not have serious side effects like antipsychotics or ritalin do.
The study involved 92 children aged 7-15 years with autism. The study is published in the medical journal Biological Psychiatry CNNI.
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What is autism?
About 200,000 people in the Netherlands have autism, which is about 1 percent of the population. According to psychiatrist and autism professor Wouter Staal, autism is the collective name for behavioral characteristics that indicate a vulnerability in the following areas: social interaction, communication, flexibility in thinking and acting and filtering and integrating information. Especially in the social field, many people with autism regularly experience problems. Their ‘social intuition’ seems to be less well, or differently, developed.
Strengths often associated with autism include: eye for detail, analytical thinking, honesty, loyalty, and technical acumen.
Researchers around the world have been trying to figure out what autism really is for years, but it’s still not clear. There is therefore also no blood or DNA test that can prove that you have autism. For the time being, the diagnosis is established on the basis of behavioral characteristics.
Source: Dutch Association for Autism
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