Recruiting subjects for a new study on Medications used for ASD

[Guest guest]

How effective is your medication for controlling symptoms of autism spectrum

disorders?

A team of investigators, headed by Dr. Hu, at The Washington

University would like to know some information related to your/your child's

medications to treat ASD.

Participant compensation: A $20 Gift card from Amazon.com will be sent to the

participant upon completion of the participant's survey and receipt of the

drawings. Compensation is not dependent on receipt of the clinician's survey.

Please visit our website at http://www.surveymonkey.com/GWautismstudy to obtain

more information about this study as well as to access the surveys for

patients/parents/guardians and

http://www.surveymonkey.com/GWautismstudy-clinician for clinicians.

Introduction: Many different medications are prescribed to individuals with

autism spectrum disorders (ASD) without knowing what actually causes ASD.

Because many medications are prescribed based on " trial-and-error, " some people

don't experience any benefits at all which others experience a major improvement

(often referred to as a " Wow! effect " by parents of children with ASD).

The study: Through participant/parent/guardian and medical doctor surveys, we

are studying the effectiveness of various medications that are prescribed to

improve the symptoms of ASD by analyzing the information provided on the

surveys. We hope that the results of this study will be used to better design

studies with subgroups of individuals with ASD based on their response to

specific medications. We hope that this study will also aid in identifying

genes that associate with how well the medication works to improve specific

symptoms of ASD. The long-range goal of these studies is to identify genetic

profiles that would help clinicians to prescribe medications more accurately

based on their patients' unique biology.

Getting involved: We are asking participants with ASD or the parents/guardians

of minors with ASD to complete a survey of the medication(s) they are taking and

their opinion as to how effective the medication(s) has been in controlling

symptoms of ASD.

We also are requesting that participants and/or parents/guardians of minors ask

their medical doctor to fill out a brief survey to obtain a clinical perspective

on the effects of the medication(s).

Finally, we are asking the person affected by ASD to complete a simple drawing

task with materials supplied by us to provide information about the person's

strengths, abilities and current performance level.

For more information: Please visit our website at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/GWautismstudy to obtain more information about this

study as well as to access the surveys for patients/parents/guardians and

http://www.surveymonkey.com/GWautismstudy-clinician for clinicians. You may

also contact the Study Coordinator at autismstudy@... or at telephone

number if you have any additional questions.