I have talked before about serotonin levels within kids with special needs, particularly those on the Autism spectrum. I have also talked about how serotonin has an influence on learning, on brain function, on mood, on states of happiness. That is the reason why many individuals are given medications like Prozac or Paxil or Zoloft, these things are called serotonin reuptake inhibitors because for many people in our society, serotonin becomes depleted and people become depressed. Now for kids on the Autism spectrum, what appears to be happening with many of them is that they can’t convert serotonin into its more active form and that has adverse effects on many of the overall core issues we see in Autism from self stimulatory behavior to language issues to eye contact problems to behavioral problems.

There is an enzyme in the brain called MAO-A (monoamineoxidase A) that seems to be one of the problem areas. MAO-A which helps with this conversion of serotonin into its active form is not working appropriately. Now there is actually a therapy called reserpine, reserpine is from an Indian herb. This has been shown in the past to be used with individuals on the Autism spectrum even dating back into the ‘50’s where reserpine was used to help boost the levels of MAO-A and to help essentially with many of the core issues we see in Autism. There is actually a therapy called Respen-A which is a patch, it is a homeopathic derivative of reserpine which is showing some good benefit with respects to many of these core issues, the eye contact, the focusing, the attention, the self stimulatory, the sensory seeking behavior, the language problems that are so common.

So the complexities of brain chemistry are being unfolded more and more as research goes on into the complexities of Autism. But that is one particular area that is of great interest is this link between serotonin, is the link between MAO-A activity and the potential use of this Respen-A as one therapy that can help in this area.