Recent decades have been marked by a wave drug treatment research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This work has resulted in improved ability to treat commonly occurring behavioral challenges associated with ASD including most prominently irritability marked by aggression, self-injurious behavior, and severe tantrums. While treatment of interfering behavior has progressed in our field, there remain several areas of unmet medical need including most prominently a lack of any approved drug therapies for the core, defining symptoms of autism. We outline the progress to date in the field of autism drug treatment while taking a future look forward into how decades of work can inform better future steps in this field.

近几十年来，自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的药物治疗研究掀起了波澜。这项工作提高了治疗与 ASD 相关的常见行为挑战的能力，包括最突出的以攻击性、自伤行为和严重发脾气为特征的易怒。虽然干扰行为的治疗在我们的领域取得了进展，但仍有几个未满足的医疗需求领域，其中最突出的是缺乏任何批准的核心药物疗法，定义自闭症的症状。我们概述了自闭症药物治疗领域迄今为止的进展，同时展望未来几十年的工作如何为该领域的未来步骤提供更好的信息。