Clomipramine autism

The ritualistic, repetitive behaviors in autism are often seen as parallel to some of the behaviors seen in OCD spectrum disorders. Because of this, CMI was initially compared with both DMI and placebo in the treatment of children with autism. Clomipramine showed superior efficacy to both DMI and to placebo (Gordon et... 

A potential limitation of most of the controlled studies discussed above relates to the numerous exclusion criteria used for patient selection. For example, in order to find homogenous samples, major depression, bipolar disorder, Tourette s disorder, psychosis (clomipramine, fluvoxamine and fluoxetine trials), primary psychiatric disorder other than OCD (clomipramine and sertraline trials), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, or other developmental disorders (clomipramine and fluoxetine trials) were excluded. Thus it remains unknown how well these controlled studies will generalize to more naturalistic clinical populations that are highly comorbid and where exclusion criteria are not applied. 

McDougle, C.J., Price, L.H., Volkmar, F.R., Goodman, W.K., Ward-O Brien, D., Nielsen, J., Bregman, J., and Cohen, D.J. (1992) Clomipramine in autism preliminary evidence of efficacy. / Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 31 746-750. 

In the Zito et al. study (2000), antidepressants were the second most commonly prescribed psychotropic medication. There are a total of 10 studies or case reports in the literature examining antidepressant use in preschool children (Table 49.4). None of the 10 studies are randomized, double-blind, or placebo-controlled trials. The ten uncontrolled studies looked at a total of 37 preschool children. Six of the studies looked at a total of 29 preschoolers with autism or childhood schizophrenia (Campbell et ah, 1971a Petti and Campbell, 1975 Holttum et ah, 1994 Sanchez et ah, 1996 DeLong et ah, 1998 Hollander et ah, 2000). While these six studies are difficult to compare, given the small sample sizes and the different treatment medications, these open-label studies suggest that clomipramine, venlafaxine, and fluoxetine may be helpful to reduce some psychiatric symptoms found in autistic... 

McDougle CJ, Price LH, Volkmar FR, et al Clomipramine in autism preliminary evidence of efficacy. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 31 746-750, 1992... 

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