At the Philadelphia meeting, a team led by Evdokia Anagnostou, a child neurologist at Bloorview Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, reported that people given the hormone twice daily for six weeks were more likely to be better at recognising emotions and at social functioning, and had a better quality of life than others given a placebo.
Trying to alter the brain chemistry thought to underlie autistic behaviour has never been done before in this way, says Uta Frith of University College London. "If they succeed it would be marvellous." But she cautions that the drugs have not yet been shown to work better than behavioural interventions and that most causes of autism are still deeply mysterious.
Carpenter points out that behavioural interventions don't work for everyone, and both approaches could be useful. "If we come up with an effective treatment, parents are going to embrace that."
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