Perspectives on Current and Emerging Treatments for Autism: Developing a Framework for Personalized Treatment Approaches

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with core symptoms of restricted, repetitive behaviors and social interaction deficits, often negatively impacting quality of life. Several treatments exist for ASD, though in many cases they do not completely address core symptoms. This paper holistically investigates behavioral, pharmacological, and gene therapy approaches to provide a framework to consider personalized treatment options. First, this article presents frequently utilized behavioral treatments, such as applied behavioral analysis and music therapy. Next, a summary of important pharmacological treatments is provided, such as risperidone and leucovorin. The article analyzes latest developments in gene therapy, which could be an excellent choice in the future for autistic individuals with identified monogenic causes. In each area, an analysis of the opportunities and limitations of these treatments is provided, along with scrutiny of applicable clinical trial results. This review explains how each treatment area involves tailoring of the options available to suit the needs of the patient in question, as well as combining these areas to help create further individual-specific approaches. Ethical considerations, such as those present in utilization of applied behavioral analysis, are also discussed as part of the development of treatment strategies. The deeper understanding provided here for each of these approaches is expected to help patients and caregivers in their process of selecting treatments. Continuing advances in ASD research, including combining treatment options, is needed to provide better outcomes for this global public health issue affecting tens of millions of individuals worldwide.