The vision of the Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) of Kennedy Krieger Institute is to use clinical trials to rigorously assess medications, devices, and interventions to determine their potential to prevent, treat and possibly even cure these conditions.
The CTU brings together patients, families, physicians, and private sponsors in an effort to further our understanding of how currently available and newly developed interventions may improve the lives of individuals affected by genetic, developmental, behavioral, and psychiatric conditions. Among these conditions, many have been previously classified as untreatable.
Every day, our clinical trials are attempting to answer tough questions:
- Could a new treatment help improve socialization and language skills in children with autism?
- Could a medication proven effective for seizures and brain tumors also have an effect on behavioral difficulties like self-injury and aggression?
- Could a treatment commonly used to treat one disorder in adults safely and effectively treat a different disorder in children?
These may seem like far-fetched ideas today, but they represent the kind of imaginative thinking that will lead us to the answers, therapies, preventions, and cures of tomorrow. This is the thinking behind the Clinical Trials Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute.
