Department of Pharmacology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160012, India.
Pharmacol Rep. 2012;64(6):1291-304. doi: 10.1016/s1734-1140(12)70927-1.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, with a multifactorial etiology, characterized by severe abnormalities in communications, social awareness and skills, and the presence of restrictive and stereotyped patterns of behaviors. It is traditionally considered a "static" encephalopathic disorder without any specific cure and few effective biomedical interventions. There are various factors which are involved in the etiopathogenesis of autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) such as impaired immune responses, neuroinflammation, abnormal neurotransmission, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, environmental toxins and stressors. The autism is often associated with a number of genetic disorders such as fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, epilepsy and Down syndrome. The recent approaches to autism treatment included various non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapy such as food supplementation, detoxification, treatment of neuroinflammation, immunologic treatments and psychotropic medications, which are found to be effective in treating various behavioral symptoms of autism. In current practice, there is no curative treatment for autism but the recommended treatment for autism involves educational therapies: speech therapy, sensory integration therapy, auditory therapy. There are classes of different pharmacological agents which are found to be effective in improving behavioral symptoms of ASD such as neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors (fluoxetine), tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine), anticonvulsants (lamotrigine), atypical antipsychotics (clozapine), acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (rivastigmine), etc. New classes of drugs with novel mechanisms of action should be there so that this disorder will become less prevalent in the future.
自闭症是一种神经发育障碍，具有多种病因，其特征是沟通、社会意识和技能严重异常，以及存在限制和刻板的行为模式。传统上，它被认为是一种没有特定治疗方法且很少有有效生物医学干预措施的“静态”脑病。有许多因素涉及自闭症或自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的发病机制，例如免疫反应受损、神经炎症、神经递质传递异常、氧化应激、线粒体功能障碍、环境毒素和应激源。自闭症通常与多种遗传疾病有关，如脆性 X 综合征、结节性硬化症、癫痫和唐氏综合征。自闭症的治疗方法包括各种非药物和药物治疗，如食物补充、解毒、神经炎症治疗、免疫治疗和精神药物治疗，这些方法已被证明可有效治疗自闭症的各种行为症状。在当前的实践中，自闭症没有治愈方法，但推荐的自闭症治疗方法包括教育疗法：言语治疗、感觉统合治疗、听觉治疗。有几类不同的药物被发现可有效改善 ASD 的行为症状，如神经递质再摄取抑制剂（氟西汀）、三环抗抑郁药（丙咪嗪）、抗惊厥药（拉莫三嗪）、非典型抗精神病药（氯氮平）、乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制剂（利伐斯的明）等。应该有新的药物类别，具有新的作用机制，以便将来这种疾病的发病率降低。
