According to findings reported today in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Forest Laboratories’ Celexa, available as the generic medicine citalopram, works no better than a placebo in treating repetitive behaviors often seen in children and teens with autism.
In the study, about one-third of the study children taking Celexa showed an improvement in behavior. The same number of children showed improvement from a placebo. What was worse that the drug was more likely than the placebo to produce adverse side effects such as increased energy, impulsiveness, and decreased concentration, the study found.
"A medication that we thought would be helpful for these repetitive behaviors was no better than placebo," said Dr. Bryan King, MD, lead author of the study and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital. "That calls into question how or if we should use [Celexa] or even related medications for this purpose."
Although Celexa, which belongs to the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, is lesser known than similar antidepressants such as Prozac and Paxil, still doctors often prescribe it as a common treatment for autism because it comes in a liquid form, meaning parents can easily give it to their kids, said Dr. King, professor and vice-chairman of psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
These antidepressants are not approved for autism use and there’s little evidence that they are effective in treating the condition, still doctors prescribe $2.2 to $3.5 billion worth of these drugs to treat perhaps 30 percent of the children with this condition.
How the research was conducted
For the study, King and colleagues included 149 children with autism, mostly boys age 5 to 17, and treated them either with 16.5 milligrams of Celexa or a fake drug.
The children took Celexa or placebo for three months, and 123 of them finished the study. Their behavior was monitored and evaluated by doctors and parents during the study period.
Celexa found useless and causing side-effects
The research team found that Celexa worked no better than dummy pills. About one of three children in each group, meaning 32.9 percent of kids on Celexa and 34.2 percent of those on placebo, exhibited fewer or less severe repetitive symptoms.
In addition, children on Celexa were more than twice as likely to develop repetitive behaviors, as well as other side effects compared to those on the placebo. More precisely, 97 percent of the children who took Celexa and 87 percent of those who took a fake drug developed at least one adverse effect.
These side effects included impulsiveness, hyperactivity, decreased concentration, sleep problems and insomnia. During the study, seven percent of kids taking Celexa experienced nightmares.
Meanwhile, Frank Murdolo, a spokesman for Forest Laboratories, said the company was not involved in the study therefore he would not make any comment.
Sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study was conducted at six universities across the country.
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