The drug is not available in Britain but many parents travelled abroad or bought the drug over the Internet in the hope that it would help their child. The new research found, however, that there were no significant changes in either receptive or expressive language among the children it studied. Three times as many boys as girls are affected. Autism is a syndrome that manifests itself in the first few years of life and involves severe deficits in socially and communication skills. The cause is not known and there is no proven cure.
Behavioral interventions can markedly improve language and social skills.
For older people, medication can sometimes help ease obsessive behaviors. Lightdale conducted the study with Dr. Melvin Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology at the University of California, and autism experts from the university's Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. The researchers gave 20 autistic children, aged 3 to 6, formal language testing before administering secretin intravenously. They then gave them four more tests after one, two, three and five weeks. The children were also videotaped while at play and scored for specific behavior characteristic of autism.