this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025

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Parents say son with autism was nonverbal until trying an off-label drug that treats chemo side effects (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Summary

Mason Connor, diagnosed with autism at 2.5 years old, was nonverbal until his parents discovered leucovorin, a folic acid-based drug used to counter chemotherapy side effects.

Within days of taking it, Mason spoke his first words. Dr. Richard Frye, a pediatric neurologist, believes leucovorin can help many autistic children but lacks FDA approval due to low profitability.

Nonprofit Every Cure advocates for repurposing existing drugs for new treatments.

Mason, now 5, is set to start mainstream kindergarten.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Can it help me talk to women?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Sure, go to a compounding pharmacy and get them to mix it 10,000/1 with ethanol

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

This is likely a case of cerebral folate deficiency, it's a pretty rare disorder, although possibly under diagnosed.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Also known as folinic acid.

Problems in folate metabolism, like MTHFR mutations, are implicated in all sorts of neuropsychiatric disorders.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

I had not known autism was (potentially) treatable. Thank you for the info!

Edit: Jeez at the downvotes. I'll just tell my nephew to keep on being silent.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's the symptom of nonverbalism, not autism itself, that's treatable with medication in this instance. This kid is still autistic, but it seems with this medication they can learn to speak.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry if I was unclear. I have a relative with this exact nonverbal situation, and we're really excited to know there's a potential treatment for it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh, I see. Congrats, then; hoping it works for you. Also to explain the downvotes, implying that autism is curable puts you in the same group as some pretty bad people who have inflicted deep collective trauma on the autist community. If your nephew has autism then it might be a good idea to ask on nostupidquestions or one of the autism communities (or just look it up) for the details, as unfortunately I'm pretty hazy on them. It'll leave you in a better position to detect misinformation related to the topic, and this kind of drama just comes with being autistic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Ah, I see. Didn't mean to step into any pre-existing drama.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Even if we believe this story, it would need studies to verify that it actually works and is safe to do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

This headline isnt to be read as "autism can be cured" but that for this one instance of neuropsychiatric illness, what helped was essentially just a folic acid supplement. Not actually, but essentially.

Most autistic kids probably don't have the exact same condition and thus wouldn't necessarily (or even probably) be helped by the drug.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

There seem to have been several small scale studies on it. It seems to work for a specific subset of the patients, and there are tests for it, but it seems to be pretty invasive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Autism is a bit of a catch all term for a cluster of symptoms. Some of those can be treated, others can't, still overs are beneficial.

Depending on the aspie your talking to/about their views on treatment vary wildly. I'm personally a high functioning aspie. The downsides are a pain in the arse, and if I could take them away with a pill, I would. However, many of the downsides are tied to the good sides. If treatment would take both, I would refuse it. Too much of what I like about myself goes through it.

There's also a bit of a sore point with groups like "autism speaks". They claim to talk for autistic people. In fact they represent the parents at best. They often talk against what actual autistic people want. They often talk a lot about "treatments" which are just a way to keep kids quiet and out of the way, to make parents lives easier, rather than helping them cope with life themselves.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago

Certain types that are caused by specific syndromes are. Unfortunately those (that have so far been identified) are the minority.