ReviewBJPsych open2021
Randomised controlled trials of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications for people with autism spectrum disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in BJPsych open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pharmacological intervention for irritability, aggression, and self-injury in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Benefits and harms of interventions to improve anxiety, depression, and other mental health outcomes for autistic people: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2023Pooled it
- Article
- Patterns of Psychotropic Prescribing Practices in Autistic Children and Adolescents: An Australian Perspective of Two Cohorts Five Years Apart.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Heterogeneous biological graph convolutional network for drug-target interaction prediction.PloS one · 2026Article
- Psychopharmacology in children with genetic disorders of epigenetic and chromatin regulation.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2025Article
- Autism Spectrum Disorder and Epilepsy: Pathogenetic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- The polymorphisms of candidate pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic genes and their pharmacogenetic impacts on the effectiveness of risperidone maintenance therapy among Saudi children with autism.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2024Article
- Article
- Mental health challenges faced by autistic people.Nature human behaviour · 2023Review
- Autism and mental illness in children and young people require standardised approaches for assessment and treatment.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2022Article
- Anxiety and Trauma-Related Disorders in Children on the Autism Spectrum.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Review
- Randomised controlled trials of mood stabilisers for people with autism spectrum disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis.BJPsych open · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough widely used, the current evidence for the efficacy of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited and conflicting.
aimsWe carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials that assessed the effectiveness of these medications in people with ASD.
methodWe searched the following databases: Cochrane Library, Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, DARE and ClinicalTrials.gov. Additionally, we hand-searched 11 relevant journals. We used the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool and Jadad score to assess the quality of each included study. We carried out a meta-analysis using a random effects model.
resultsWe included 15 randomised controlled trials (13 on antidepressants and two on anti-anxiety medications) for a total of 958 people with ASD. Data showed contradictory findings among the studies, with larger studies mostly showing a non-significant difference in outcomes between the treatment and the placebo groups. Meta-analysis of pooled Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and Clinical Global Impression Scale data from nine studies (60%) did not show any statistically significant inter-group difference on either of the outcome measures. The adverse effects reported were mild and, in most studies, their rates did not show any significant inter-group difference.
conclusionsGiven the methodological flaws in the most included studies and contradictory findings, it is difficult to draw any definitive conclusion about the effectiveness of either antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications to treat either ASD core symptoms or associated behaviours. Robust, large-scale, randomised controlled trials are needed to address this issue.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.