Each child will get one injection of secretin or a placebo and be evaluated for effects one month later. Researchers expect to have preliminary results in about six months. Children began receiving the injections late last month. However high the hopes, experts warn that secretin is not the first treatment to look promising. Some work for a few families.
None seems to work for all.
Most have not been scientifically tested. Most parents, there's not a thing they wouldn't do if they thought it would cure their child. Parents are often so hopeful for results, they see them where objective observers would not. Researchers have seen hopes raised by drugs before. In the 1980s, fenfluramine, a drug that reduces the blood level of serotonin, was being touted as a wonder drug for autism.