Drug touted by Trump admin. for autism shows promise for some symptoms

The Trump administration announced FDA approval for a drug that may help treat autistic children

The FDA will be updating the label of an existing drug to reflect

potential benefits in reducing some autism symptoms. The drug is called lucovarin. It's a prescription version of falinic acid

It's been around for decades and is mostly used to help chemotherapy patients

So it's not a chemotherapy med, it's just a vitamin that replaces your folate level when it gets depleted by the medication

Research has shown many children with autism have an antibody that blocks normal folic acid receptors

However, this drug can get around that block and has shown some real improvements for children on the autism spectrum

Be-reviewed literature has documented that up to 60% of folate deficient children with ASD can have improved verbal communications if given leukovorin

The improvements that we tend to see are things like speech and social, which is kind of big because we don't really have any treatments that are approved to treat speech and social and autism

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement to Straight Arrow News reading in part, quote

There's no single root cause of autism, and there is no single medication that will give every autistic child or adult what they need

Individualized plans, often including a combination of developmental, behavioral, educational, and social relational strategies, can help improve outcomes that are meaningful to individuals and families

The Trump administration said that they plan to do more research on this drug and its impact on autism

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. If you want more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com