fMRI used to analyze psychotropic drug use in autistic patients

Neuroscientists from Rutgers University have found that trying to control bodily movement and treating children with autism using psychotropic drugs may worsen their neuromotor problems.

Elizabeth Torres, co-author and associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, published findings in Nature Scientific Reports.

“For the first time, we can demonstrate unambiguously that motor issues are core issues that need to be included in the diagnosis criteria for autism,” said Torres in a Rutgers press release. 

According to Torres, many doctors prescribe psychotropic drugs to children with autism, although these drugs are made for adults. 

“Our findings underline the need for clinical trials to determine the effects of these medications on the children’s neuromotor development,” stated Torres. “Doctors should think twice about prescribing such medications for children and parents should insist that they think twice.”

A new algorithm created at Rutgers and part of a Statistical Platform for Individualized Behavior Analysis (SPIBA) was used for this study. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan 1,048 people (people with autism spectrum disorder were included) aged 6 to 50, to study their motor patterns after taking psychotropic drugs.

The neuroscientists took a different approach to looking at their data. While most research begins with a hypothesis to test, Torres et al started off in another direction, “Instead, we let the data reveal any trends there might be among the subjects we were studying. We asked ourselves, ‘What could these involuntary movements, which researchers usually consider a nuisance, tell us about autism?’”

Data suggests that although all participants had some sort of movement during fMRI scans, those with autism moved much more, and those on psychotropic medicines and/or taking more than one medicine, moved even more than those not taking the drug.

“It wasn’t just that they moved more, it was that their patterns worsened over the session. ... The question is now that we know this, what are we going to do about it?” asks Torres.