Divalproex Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a disorder found in around 1 in 68 American children (CDC, 2014), appears in early brain development. Children with this illness usually have irregularities in brain parts such as the corpus callosum, amygdala and cerebellum. They face challenges in the following main areas: behavioral, developmental, cognitive and psychological. It is hard for these children to interact and communicate with other people because they often close themselves off and have hard times understanding others’ feelings. It is also hard for them to learning, pay attention and stop certain behaviors. Since being able to interact with one another is one of the most important ability that one should have in the living world and without this
(2010), divalproex sodium is tested to see whether it is effective in treating irritability and aggression in children with autism. Divalproex sodium is usually used in treat some types of seizures and manic depressive illness. It was a randomized double-blind experiment with placebo and control that was performed on 27 children from 5-17 years’ old who are diagnosed with autism over a 12-week period. 16 participants were placed to receive divalproex and 11 were placed for the placebo while doses were arranged in accordance with body weight, therapeutic blood level and response to treatment. Several measures were used in order to keep the experiment accurate. For baseline measures, Autism diagnostic interview-revised (ADI-R), Autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic (ADOS-G) and Leiter international performance scale-revised are used. All three of them are for identifying patients with autism. For measuring primary outcome, two scales are used. The clinical global impression-improvement (CGI-I) was used to measure the change in participants’ symptoms based on the aberrant behavior checklist (ABC)- community version (Irritability subscale) that were filled out by primary caregiver. The checklist included irritability, lethargy, stereotypy, hyperactivity, and inappropriate speech. For secondary outcome, two other measurements were used. The Overt Aggression Scale-Modified (OAS-M) measured observations of four types of aggressive behaviors and the Child-Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CYBOCS) inspects divalproex sodium’s influence on repetitive behaviors. For exploratory outcome, three measurements were used. Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale assessed participants’ daily functioning, Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) measured manic symptoms and estimated outcome of mania treatment, and electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded the electrical activity in the brain. According to the results, it is showed it valproate may