The history of autism "cures" is a history of dashed hopes and frequent danger.
Ariana Eunjung Cha at WP:
Pediatrician Kristin Sohl has lost count of how many times parents of children with autism have asked her for a prescription for leucovorin — the drug thrust into the spotlight after President Donald Trump touted it at a White House event this fall.
Since September, despite the rising queries, Sohl has typically told her patients no.
Early clinical trials of the drug showed hints of promise in boosting communication and cognition for some children with autism. But the studies have been small, often just a few dozen participants. Normally, approval by the Food and Drug Administration comes only after years of large-scale testing. But Trump’s pledge to fast-track the drug in September, bypassing that process, has left many doctors on the front lines divided.
“It leaves me as a practicing physician with a lot of unanswered questions,” said Sohl, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, who has been working in the field of autism for over 20 years.
As interest in the drug surges, Facebook groups devoted to it are swelling in membership, message boards are inundated with questions and Google searches are climbing. Physicians, who typically rely on evidence-based guidelines and clear treatment algorithms, are finding that with leucovorin they must — lacking robust scientific data — improvise. Some are cautiously moving forward with prescribing the drug, but many are still holding off.
At Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., neurodevelopmental pediatrician Sinan Turnacioglu said the hospital convened a meeting of various departments — including those specializing in autism, developmental pediatrics, genetics and psychiatry, as well as primary care doctors — to come up with a systemwide policy. Their conclusion: that they would like to see more robust research before prescribing it.
