Conditions: Autism
Keywords: Aggression Irritability Global severity
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 17
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Published studies on omega 3 fatty acids in the treatment of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have shown reductions in time to recurrence, a decrease in the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and improvements in Clinical Global Impression Scale, Young Mania Rating Scale, and HAM-D scores. The following are the hypotheses:

* Omega 3 fatty acids will be superior to placebo in the acute treatment of global autism.
* Omega 3 fatty acids will be superior to placebo in improving aggression and irritability associated with autism.
* Omega 3 fatty acids will be superior to placebo in improving functional ability.

Detailed description:
This study is an innovative treatment approach to autism. It adapts a promising adjunct therapy for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to a new population, that of children and adolescents with autism. It will analyze the possible relationship between dosage of omega 3 fatty acids and treatment outcomes. Finally, it will attempt to identify which specific subgroups of subjects will respond to this intervention, which components and associated features are most responsive and whether this impacts subjects' quality of life. The data generated by this study is intended to support the rationale for a full scale, large multi-site clinical trial.

Arms:
arm 1: Omega 3 Fatty acids will be dispensed to subjects in the active experimental group of the study. arm 2: The placebo will be dispensed to subjects in the control group

Interventions: intervention 1: Omega 3 fatty acids intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: The study will start with low doses and based on the weight of the individual the dosage will be increased biweekly. intervention 2: Same dosage as that of omega 3 fatty acids

Protocol document: