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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffThe core signs of Asperger's syndrome can't be cured. But most children benefit from early specialized interventions that focus on behavior management and social skills training. Your doctor can help identify resources in your area that may work for your child. Options may include:
- Communication and social skills training. Children with Asperger's syndrome may be able to learn the unwritten rules of socialization and communication when taught in an explicit and rote fashion, much like the way students learn foreign languages. Children with Asperger's syndrome may also learn how to speak in a more natural rhythm, as well as how to interpret communication techniques, such as gestures, eye contact, tone of voice, humor and sarcasm.
- Cognitive behavior therapy. This general term encompasses many techniques aimed at curbing problem behaviors, such as interrupting, obsessions, meltdowns or angry outbursts, as well as developing skills like recognizing feelings and coping with anxiety. Cognitive behavior therapy usually focuses on training a child to recognize a troublesome situation — such as a new place or an event with lots of social demands — and then select a specific learned strategy to cope with the situation.
- Medication. There are no medications to treat Asperger's syndrome. But some medications may improve specific symptoms that may be complicating his or her progress — such as anxiety, depression or hyperactivity — that can occur in many children with Asperger's syndrome.
- 1. Asperger syndrome fact sheet, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/asperger/asperger.htm. Accessed Sept. 4, 2008.
- 2. Toth K, et al. Asperger's syndrome: diagnosis and treatment. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2008 Aug;165(8):958-63.
- 3. Khouzam HR, et al. Asperger's disorder: A review of its diagnosis and treatment. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 2004 May-Jun;45(3):184-91
