JAQUELYN McCANDLESS, M.D. Certified by American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology HI Address: P.O. Box 1868, Honokaa, HI 96727, Phone 808-775-8142, Fax: 818-337-7338 JMcCandless@prodigy.net, www.starvingbrains.com www.LDNAfricaAIDS.org
SYNOPSIS: THE USE OF LOW-DOSE NALTREXONE IN TREATING AUTISM AND OTHER ILLNESSES June 2010 Introduction: Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist used for narcotic addiction treatment. At its full dose of 50mg or more per day, Naltrexone was approved by the US FDA in 1985 and made generic in 1997. In the US, once a drug has been tested and FDA approved for any use, physicians may work with compounding pharmacists to create different formulations and dosing of this drug as deemed appropriate for other disorders not formally studied, called “off label” use. This is why naltrexone at low doses has been increasingly used in the US (and elsewhere) over the past ten years. The following summary of the use of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) in the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder was prepared by Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless, a licensed physician certified by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology. Dr. McCandless has been treating ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) children since 1999 and is the author of a well-received book on the bio-medical treatment of autism, “Children with Starving Brains, A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder” (First Edition 2002, Fourth Edition 2009 by Bramble Books). Autistic children are immuno-compromised, as demonstrated by multiple studies showing their inability to detoxify along with low glutathione levels (1-7). Glutathione is among the body’s endogenous detoxification agents (8). Dr. McCandless conducted private clinical studies in 2005 using LDN to assess its efficacy in improving the immune status in children with autism. History: A New York physician, Bernard Bahari MD, in working with hospitalized HIV+AIDS patients in 1985, was giving patients naltrexone to help addiction craving issues while being treated for the newly arising AIDS infectious disease (at that time, 50% of known AIDS patients in the US were addicted to narcotics from sharing contaminated needles). Addiction drug cravings were helped but blood tests showed immune systems responding negatively. He learned from a researcher at Penn State, Ian Zagon PhD, that in research work with animals naltrexone actually helped the immune system as the dose was lowered. Dr. Bahari did lower the dose and through serial blood tests of hospitalized patients determined that endorphin output increased and the ideal dose showing benefit to immunity was between 1.75-4.5mg of naltrexone compared to usual dosing of 50mg (9). Dr. Bahari started using LDN on HIV+AIDS patients, all of whom were expected to die; many of them are still alive today, 25 years later, using just LDN. For those who did proceed to full-blown AIDS, the combination of LDN and HAART medications worked quite successfully; most of those have also survived. Many hundreds of studies starting in