So the question is: Are we sedating these children and therefore seeing an improvement in their anxieties, or is there truly a mechanism that is decreasing their autism-like symptoms?

All these drugs do have minimal side effects - some of them include drowsiness, dizziness, weakness and fatigue.  I'm all in favor of looking at therapeutic treatments that might enhance the already well established treatment of autistic children like ABA physical therapy, fine and gross motor exercises and speech therapy.  I do realize there is a tremendous need in severe cases of autism to control behavior and certainly a need for these types of drugs after they have been thoroughly studied.

But I'm also a little worried the indiscriminate utilization of these medicines, on the back of not giving kids more hands-on therapy, could merely mask their breakthroughs from speech and physical therapy.