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"Risperidone in preschool children with autistic spectrum disorders: an investigation of safety and efficacy." Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. 16,5. 575-587. (2006 ABSTRACT Introduction: Early intervention in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) appears promising and may represent a window of opportunity for more effective treatment. Whereas the safety and efficacy of risperidone have been established for children aged 5 and older, they has not been adequately tested in preschool children. Methods: A randomized placebo-controlled study of risperidone in preschool children was conducted in a sample of young children, most of whom were also undergoing intensive behavioral treatment.Results: Preschool children tolerated low-dose risperidone well with no serious adverse effects observed over a 6-month treatment period. Weight gain and hypersalivation were the most common side effects reported, and hyperprolactinemia without lactation or related signs was observed. Significant differences between groups found at baseline complicated the analyses; however, controlling for some of these differences revealed that preschoolers on risperidone demonstrated greater improvements in autism severity. The change in autism severity scores from baseline to 6-month follow up for the risperidone group was 8% compared to 3% for the placebo group. Notably, both groups significantly improved over the 6-month treatment period.Conclusions: Study findings suggest that risperidone is well tolerated in preschoolers over a 6-month period, but that only minimally greater improvement in target symptoms was evident in the risperidone group, possibly due to the differences between groups at baseline or due to the small sample size. Although these findings are not sufficient to direct treatment, they suggest that larger-scale, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigations of risperidone in preschoolers with ASDs should now be conducted.

research focuses on identifying the antecedents of learning, attention, and behavioral disorders in medically at-risk populations, including those born prematurely, those exposed to substances of abuse during pregnancy, and those exposed to neurotoxins in the environment. For the past two decades, she has studied the normative development of emergent executive control skills in young children and infants.Nicolas Chevalier, Ph.D., is a Chancellor's Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK). His work addresses cognitive development, especially executive function, during childhood. He is particularly interested in how children determine what they need to do and how to best engage control based on environmental information, available cognitive means, and previous experiences.

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Within the past five years, significant strides have been made in the characterization of preschool (3-6 years of age) depression. Advances in this line of research have been made possible by increasing attention to the impact of developmental stage on symptom manifestation and the development of measures that appropriately assess for the presence of these developmentally specific symptoms. Available empirical evidence demonstrates that preschool depression is characterized by a specific and stable symptom constellation, associated impairment, biologic markers, and family history of similar disorders. This article reviews the relatively new body of evidence supporting the validity of preschool depression.