Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2026
Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
Multisite, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of porcine secretin in autism
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA. towley@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu
Objective:
To examine the efficacy of intravenous porcine secretin for the treatment of autistic disorder.
Method:
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. Fifty-six subjects with autistic disorder received either a secretin or placebo infusion at baseline and the other substance at week 4. Subjects were given the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and other pertinent developmental measures at baseline and at weeks 4 and 8 to assess drug effects.
Results:
For the primary efficacy analysis, 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; t54 = 0.346, p < .73). The other measures showed no treatment effect for secretin compared with placebo.
Conclusion:
There was no evidence for efficacy of secretin in this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.
