Bryan King & Matthew State Part 1: Developing Autism Spectrum Disorder Therapeutics: Treatment Targets and Tools from 30,000 Feet

In the first lecture, Dr. Bryan King introduces the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and defines the clinical criteria that characterizes ASD. Although there is no universal drug that is used to treat ASD, there are multiple medications used in the setting of autism. King outlines the different drugs used to treat the core behavioral features of autism as well as psychiatric disorders associated with autism (e.g. ADHD and anxiety), and discusses the challenges and problems with designing clinical trials to study drugs to treat ASD, specifically with the heterogeneity of the ASD population.