Autism Treatment – Respen-A dosages and Autism

The fact that Respen-A contains an ingredient that comes from a drug has raised some questions, and concerns, from some parents. Respen-A has an active ingredient called Reserpine which comes from an Indian herb named rauwolfia serpentine, also known as snakeroot. In 1955 Reserpine was approved for the treatment of hypertension by the FDA. But now, we don’t see Reserpine being used to a significant degree to treat hypertension any more. Nowadays there are many other medications to treat high blood pressure, even though it was approved for that treatment. And in Respen-A, you are getting between 10 and 50 times less Reserpine since the dose for high blood pressure was .1 - .5 mg and Respen-A has .01 mg.

November 2008 was about when Respen-A was first introduced to the Autism community. At that time, a small study was done looking at some kids from November 2008 until November 2009. Other parents began using this for their children after the results were found to be quite promising and a subsequent press release was issued. In 1957 in the Journal of Mental Disorders and Disease was a study done that used Reserpine on a group of kids with Autism. They used an oral elixir with a dose of between 3 – 7 mg. The FDA approved treatment dose for hypertension was .1 - .5 mg and this dose was an oral elixir between 3 and 7 mg. The findings were that these children showed improvement in verbal communication, improved socialization, improved eye contact, improved overall awareness, less self stimulatory behaviors, and improved willingness to socialize and play, etc. These improvements in children using Respen-A are also the same types of improvements that I see with children using other therapies such as Methyl B-12.

The side effects that have been reported are things that are not too significant like dry mouths or excessive sleepiness. But, there were some adverse neurological behaviors that manifested in some children, similar to symptoms seen in Parkinson’s, when the doses were pushed up to 10 – 12 mg. Today’s Respen-A patch has 200 – 700 times less Reserpine than was used in that study back in 1957. So while the dose of Reserpine in Respen-A is not even close to the doses used in the study, many of the benefits seen are. So those improvements seen in eye contact, the improvement in speech in quality, deliberateness and appropriateness, the improvement in socialization, and the improvement in overall awareness is what I have also seen in patents in my practice who are using Respen-A. So, I think there is a big misconception out there about Respen-A and the amounts of Reserpine used. I wanted to share this information with you so can see the amounts used in the 1957 study, the amounts used in treatments for hypertension as well as the amounts used in Respen-A.