Pharmacological treatment of mood disturbances, aggression, and self-injury in persons with pervasive developmental disorders.
No autism drug reliably stops aggression or self-injury—pair any med trial with a functional behavior assessment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Huguenin (2000) read every drug paper he could find on autism. He looked at pills for mood swings, hitting, and head-banging. The review covers antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and antidepressants up to the year 2000.
He asked one question: do any of these drugs always work?
What they found
None of the medicines worked for every person. Some kids calmed down on risperidone, others got worse. Side effects like weight gain and drooling were common.
The author says pills can help, but you must pair them with a behavior plan.
How this fits with other research
Feinstein et al. (1988) showed that hitting stops faster when you know why it happens and you pick a matching intervention. Huguenin (2000) repeats that advice: run a functional analysis first, then add medicine if needed.
Khongpiboonkit et al. (2025) tracked Thai kids for years and saw BMI climb from 27 % to 37 % while on antipsychotics. This updates H’s warning about weight gain with hard numbers.
Bao et al. (2017) looked at oxytocin for social skills and also found mixed results. Both reviews agree: no single drug is a magic bullet for autism behaviors.
Why it matters
Start every case with an FA before you call the doctor. If meds are started, graph weight and behavior each week. When the data trend down, you can show the team whether the pill, the behavior plan, or both are helping.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Aggression, self-injury, and mood disturbances in persons with autistic disorders, while not uncommon, do not constitute core features of autism. Moreover, these problems can occur for a variety of reasons, which need to be assessed in order to plan appropriate and frequently combined (behavioral-pharmacological) treatments. Drugs acting primarily in the dopaminergic, serotonergic, adrenergic, opioidergic, and glutamatergic systems all have been explored in the treatment of aggression and self-injury. While no single drug or class of medication has yet emerged as consistently effective, a number of drugs appear promising. Advances in the assessment of aggressive behaviors, the identification of predictors of drug response, and additional controlled clinical drug trials specifically aimed at these target behaviors are essential in improving the approach to these problematic behaviors in the context of autistic disorder.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2000 · doi:10.1023/a:1005555624566