An Open-Label Trial of Escitalopram in Pervasive Developmental Disorders.

Objective: To assess the effect of escitalopram in the treatment of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs). Method: This 10-week study had a forced titration, open-label design. Twenty-eight subjects (mean age 125.1 [+ or -] 33.5 months) with a PDD received escitalopram at a dose that increased weekly to a maximum dose of 20 mg as tolerated. The Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community Version (ABC-CV) and the Clinical Global Impression scale (CGI) were used to assess outcome. Results: There was significant improvement in ABC-CV Irritability Subscale Scores (baseline mean 20.5 [+ or -] 5.9 to final mean 10.9 [+ or -] 7.2; p [less than or equal to] .001) and in the other ABC-CV Subscales. Improvement on Clinical Global Improvement Scale severity rating was also significant (baseline mean 5.2 [+ or -] 1.0 to final mean 4.6 [+ or -] 1.2; p [less than or equal to] .001). Twenty-five percent of the subjects responded at a dose less than 10 mg and did not tolerate the 10-mg dose, and an additional 36% responded at a dose greater than or equal to 10 mg. Final dose was unrelated to weight and only weakly correlated with age. Conclusions: This open-label study found escitalopram to be useful in treating some difficulties common in PDDs. A wide variability in dose was found that could not be accounted for by weight and only partially by age. The study provides information useful for the design of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of escitalopram in PDDs. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 2005;44(4):343-348. Key Words: autistic disorder, escitalopram, drug treatment, open label.