Cognitive Effects of Risperidone in Children With Autism and Irritable Behavior

¶ … Autistic Children

Children with autism and irritable behavior are an incredibly vulnerable population. The right medications are crucial because the children are the ones who suffer any social or emotional problems based on their conditions. That is why Aman et al. (2008) explored the use of risperidone in children with autism and other forms of irritable behavior. The study aimed to better understand risperidone's cognitive impact on children with severe behavior disturbances to test its efficiency as a potential solution to some of the children's behavioral issues.

Risperidone is an antipsychotic that is often administered to this vulnerable population; yet there is surprisingly little discourse on the cognitive impact it may have during treatment of behavioral disorders. The study conducted by Aman et al. (2008) aimed to test whether or not risperidone had a cognitive impact in the short-term during administering of treatment to children. During this age range, cognitive development is crucial for the lives of children. The researchers wanted to see if there were any positive or negative impacts of risperidone that were effecting cognitive development. Thus, the study included 38 children from 5 to 17 years of age over an eight-week period where treatment of risperidone was administered. A control group took a placebo in this double blind study design. The null hypothesis was "that there would be no differences between placebo and risperidone" (Aman et al., 2008). Disproving the null hypothesis would show that there was a positive or negative correlation between cognitive development and treatments administering risperidone.

The study was properly set up for statistical testing. The study design was an "acute, double blind, placebo controlled, parallel groups design" administered at five different medical facilities (Aman et al., 2008). The independent variable was the administration of 3.5 mg of risperidone over an eight-week period. Dependent variables included the level of sustained attention in the children, verbal learning development, coordination, and spatial memory. The research did sufficiently explain each task that was administered at each clinical examination, which helped better explain the level of cognitive functioning seen in the subjects. Ultimately, the authors presented a strong description of their entire methodology which strengthened the study design and conclusions. There were a good collection of variables, although researchers should have included some measurement of behavior in order to show how beneficial risperidone could be in regards to behavioral issues as well. Any changes or differences in how the child performed before and after the risperidone treatment was then statistically analyzed with the used of ANOVA. The study used a multitude of statistical concepts, which also provides greater reliability and strength to the conclusions. The t-test and Chi Square tests were used to show differences between the experimental and the placebo group. Additionally, the General Linear Models package was used from the SPSS system software to further analyze the results. P values were used to determine statistical differences.

The risperidone did help in a number of contexts, thus showing a positive correlation between the drug and cognitive functioning, which effectively disproved the null hypothesis. There was not a decline in cognitive performance for the children taking the risperidone and they did show positive correlations with increasing strength in verbal learning and cancellation tasks, where the number of correct detections was measured. Also, spatial memory showed positive improvement, although there was a lack statistically improved performance levels in regards to coordination and timed math tests administered before and after the treatment of risperidone was administered. The placebo group lagged significantly behind the experimental group in these categories.