A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of D-cycloserine for the enhancement of social skills training in autism spectrum disorders.
Weekly D-cycloserine does not make social-skills groups work better for autistic children.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Minshawi et al. (2016) ran a placebo-controlled trial with kids on the spectrum.
Half took 50 mg D-cycloserine 30 min before weekly social-skills group. The other half got a sugar pill.
Both groups kept going to the same group lessons. The team tracked social change with the SRS and other checklists.
What they found
At the end, the drug group and the placebo group looked the same on every measure.
Everyone improved a little, but the pill added nothing extra. Bottom line: D-cycloserine did not speed up social learning.
How this fits with other research
Rutherford et al. (2003) showed that a short clinic-only social-skills group can raise greeting and play skills without any drug. The new study keeps the group format and adds a pill, yet gains stay flat.
Wang et al. (2023) also used an RCT design. They paired social training with mild brain stimulation and saw real SRS drops. Same design, opposite result—an apparent contradiction. The difference: brain stimulation was given daily for two weeks, while DCS was given only once a week, and at a low dose.
Parrella et al. (2026) tested another weekly oral drug, CBD oil. Like Minshawi, they found no SRS benefit but small side perks (less anxiety). The pattern hints that weekly pills alone are too weak to move core social scores.
Why it matters
If you run social-skills groups, leave D-cycloserine on the shelf. Weekly dosing does not help, and placebo effects can look like real change. Spend your time on high-dose practice, daily sessions, or caregiver coaching instead.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Keep your social-skills lesson plan; skip the DCS pill and add extra practice trials or caregiver homework.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Researchers have demonstrated that d-cycloserine (DCS) can enhance the effects of behavioral interventions in adults with anxiety and enhances prosocial behavior in animal models of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study extended upon this background by combining DCS with behavioral social skills therapy in youth with ASD to assess its impact on the core social deficits of ASD. We hypothesized that DCS used in combination with social skills training would enhance the acquisition of social skills in children with ASD. A 10-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of DCS (50 mg) given 30 min prior to weekly group social skills training was conducted at two sites. Children with ASD were randomized to receive 10 weeks (10 doses) of DCS or placebo in a 1:1 ratio. No statistically significant difference attributable to drug treatment was observed in the change scores for the primary outcome measure, the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), total score (p = 0.45), or on secondary outcome measures. The results of this trial demonstrated no drug-related short-term improvement on the primary outcome measure, or any of the secondary outcome measures. However, an overall significant improvement in SRS total raw score was observed from baseline to end of treatment for the entire group of children with ASD. This suggests a need to further study the efficacy of the social skills training protocol. Limitations to the current study and areas for future research are discussed. ClinicalTrials.govNCT01086475
Molecular Autism, 2016 · doi:10.1186/s13229-015-0062-8