Drug Study-- Vasopressin

I am not a doctor but this is what I know about vesopressin, the medicine that my son is on.  Why it is being used as a "cure" for autism?  With my basic understanding I will try to explain.

Vesopressin is a naturally occurring neuropeptide that exists in the body.  "A neuropeptide is a small protein-like molecules that are used by neurons to communicate with each other.  They are neuronal signaling molecules that influence the activity of the brain in specific ways." Wikipedia.

It is similar to oxytocin.  There have been studies about whether oxytocin helps autism.  The challenge with oxytocin is that even if the body gets flooded with it, if the individual doesn't have the receptors for it, oxytocin won't help.  Meaning: you might have a key but if there are no locks for that type key doesn't matter how many identical keys you have, the door won't open.  The primate social brain does have a lot of receptors for vesopressin but less for oxytocin. 

It is known that in the neurotypical brain vesopressin enhances memory for happy and angry social information.  Which means that people are more "connected" to their experiences.  It also enhances identification of social words and cooperative behavior.  All good stuff.

Vesopressin has been used to treat people with post-stroke aphasia.  (Aphasia: a langauge disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate.)  It has also been shown to help short and long term memory for people suffering from central diabetes insipidus, a rare condition that involves extreme thirst and excessive urination.  

From Wikipedia:  "Vesopressin has two primary functions in the body; to retain water and constrict blood vessels" which lead to a bunch of day-to-day running of the body.

The questions are the vesopressin levels altered in children with ASD?  Is vesopressin effective in enhancing social functioning in children with ASD.

My understanding is there might be 100 gene issues which lead to a child who we call an ASD kid.  What the study is looking for is a sub-set of kids who have genes that cause lower-vesopressin amounts in their body.  This intervention can help these kids but won't be able to address all children with ASD because they might have normal amounts in their blood.  That classic saying, "If you met one child with ASD, you have met ONE child with ASD."  When solutions come they will need to come in several different forms.

Does our son have lowered amounts of vesopressin in his body?  I don't know but I have to say that I hope that this drug helps him.  If this helps we know part of the cause.  This is a drug trial, it is not FDA approved medicine for treating ASD.  It will leave us at the end of the 4 weeks wondering how to increase the levels of vesopressin in TsukiMoon naturally.  We will have something concrete and part of the solution.