Thread by @ScienceVet2

Oy. Super short version: SSRIs don't prevent autistic tics (which they call OCD behaviors).

This is utterly unsurprising to anyone who's ever been friends with an autistic person. Autistic stimming doesn't even look like OCD behavior if you look.

sciencenews.org/article/prozac…

Addon: As @prettynose92 noted "tics" aren't the same as "stimming." But what they describe in the article doesn't differentiate between the behaviors. Tics are *involuntary* and just happen.

Here's a video:

@prettynose92 The assumption has been that tics were due to overactive signals and SSRI's would help modulate the system.

The challenge is that tics are ideopathic (unknown origin) and as the video above notes, can come with a lot of other conditions (like anxiety).

@prettynose92 There's also "simple" and "complex" tics. And there's debate whether all "stereotypies" are stimming or if some may be extra-complex tics.

This makes it all very difficult to separate out in a useful sense for designing experimental studies.

It's also a reason that we REALLY need more people on more parts of the spectrum directly involved with designing the research.

It's ALSO notable that this study was (as usual) 85% boys of N=146. With an N of that size, from Meblourne/Perth/Sydney sourced from doctors it's unlikely that the population was otherwise diverse.

So who knows what the effect is on anyone else.