It’s usually more fun to hang out with friends than to have a beer by yourself.”

“Why do most of us like to go out and have a beer with friends?” he asks. This trial is based on more than a decade of research on the mechanisms underlying the rewarding aspects of social interaction, says Maplight co-founder and board member Robert Malenka, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University in California. The drug, called ML-004 and developed by San Francisco, California-based Maplight Therapeutics, belongs to a class of compounds called triptans, which are prescribed for migraines and have minimal reported side effects. Researchers are recruiting autistic adults and teenagers for a phase 2 trial of an experimental drug that binds to and activates the serotonin 1B receptor. In fact, this month’s story on psilocybin was prompted by several readers who responded to the first issue of Going on Trial. In this issue, we’re talking about a serotonin agonist’s path to trial for autism, debate around a trial of psilocybin for fragile X syndrome and an analysis of placebo responses in a clinical trial of the vasopressin blocker balovaptan.įeel free to email me at with feedback on how this newsletter can better serve your needs as a researcher, and send me any tips you think readers should know about. Welcome to the April edition of Going on Trial, a monthly newsletter covering clinical trials and drug development for autism and related conditions.

You are the placebo book