Fisch G S, Cohen I L, Gross A C, Jenkins V, Jenkins E C, Brown W T
NYS Institute for Basic Research/OMRDD, Staten Island.
Am J Med Genet. 1988 May-Jun;30(1-2):393-9. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.1320300139.
Investigations of the effect of high dose folic acid treatment of fragile X syndrome in males has produced mixed results. However, no study had examined the possible drug effects of folic acid on non-fragile X control males. Therefore, we examined the effect of folic acid on fragile X males using non-fragile X control males. Subjects were assigned randomly to an ABA or BAB design. Duration of either folic acid or placebo condition was 4 months. Folic acid or placebo was given in a double-blind fashion. At the end of each condition, the subjects' behavior was assessed. At the end of the study, parents were asked to complete a questionnaire. Using parents' responses, we examined 22 items on the Autistic Descriptors Checklist and two subscales from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale which corresponded to areas of behavior parents' noted to have shown improvement. We did not find significant differences between fragile X males and control males, within subjects, nor across folic acid and placebo conditions. Thus, our follow-up study confirms and extends our original findings, as well as those of other researchers: namely, that no dramatic changes in behavior result from high dose folic acid. Moreover, subtle improvements observed in earlier investigations were not confirmed.
对高剂量叶酸治疗男性脆性X综合征的效果进行的研究结果不一。然而，尚无研究考察叶酸对非脆性X对照男性可能产生的药物效应。因此，我们使用非脆性X对照男性来研究叶酸对脆性X男性的影响。受试者被随机分配到ABA或BAB设计中。叶酸或安慰剂治疗期均为4个月。叶酸或安慰剂采用双盲给药方式。在每种治疗结束时，对受试者的行为进行评估。研究结束时，要求家长填写一份问卷。利用家长的回答，我们考察了自闭症描述符清单上的22个项目以及文兰适应性行为量表中的两个分量表，这些项目和分量表与家长指出有改善的行为领域相对应。我们未发现脆性X男性与对照男性在受试者内部以及叶酸和安慰剂治疗条件之间存在显著差异。因此，我们的后续研究证实并扩展了我们最初的发现以及其他研究人员的发现：即高剂量叶酸不会导致行为发生显著变化。此外，早期研究所观察到的细微改善并未得到证实。
