Are there new advances in the pharmacotherapy of autism spectrum disorders?

they may be helpful for DMDD. Data support the use of atypical antipsychotic medication in youth with autism and irritability, and in youth with aggression. However, recent increases in antipsychotic prescriptions may have resulted in part from attempts to treat pediatric irritability, perhaps without adequate exploration of alternative pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic approaches. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may treat irritability in adults; such an approach in children is supported by the high comorbidity and longitudinal associations among irritability, anxiety and depression. SSRIs are now being tested in youth with DMDD. Psychotherapeutic approaches are likely to be important in the treatment of irritability. Parent training can decrease a child’s aggression and might also decrease irritability. Cognitive behavioral approaches are being tested, as is implicit training designed to alter irritable children’s tendency to view ambiguous faces as angry. In conclusion, the recent focus on irritability has yielded considerable knowledge about its longitudinal course and associations with psychopathology. Ongoing work is aimed at identifying the brain mechanisms mediating irritability and at using that knowledge to inform novel treatment approaches.