Multisite, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of porcine secretin in autism

Objective: To examine the efficacy of intravenous porcine secretin for the treatment of autistic disorder. Method: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-c ontrolled, crossover design. Fifty-six subjects with autistic disorder rece ived either a secretin or placebo infusion at baseline and the other substa nce at week 4. Subjects were given the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedu le (ADOS) and other pertinent developmental measures at baseline and at wee ks 4 and 8 to assess drug effects. Results, For the primary efficacy analys is, change of ADOS social-communication total score from week 0 to week 4, no statistically significant difference was obtained between placebo (-0.8 +/- 2.9) and secretin groups (-0.6 +/- 1.4; t(54) = 0.346, p < .73). The ot her measures showed no treatment effect for secretin compared with placebo. Conclusion: There was no evidence for efficacy of secretin in this randomi zed, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.