Celexa, an antidepressant that's among the most popular kinds of medicine used for treating autism, didn't work for most kids and caused nightmares and other side effects.
The risks associated with taking Celexa outweighed any benefits in the largest published study of medication versus dummy pills for autism, said Dr. Bryan King, lead author of the study, reported Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
The drug isn't approved for treating autism, but many doctors have prescribed it, thinking it might help prevent repetitive behaviors such as spinning, twirling and head-banging that are hallmark autism symptoms.
In the autism study, Celexa worked no better than dummy pills. In fact, compared with kids on placebos, those on Celexa were more than twice as likely to develop repetitive behaviors, as well as other side effects including sleep problems and hyperactivity.Bonnie - yet another hard lesson for doctors and in particular, the public, not to use drugs off-label.
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