Secretin

Does Secretin work?

Partly: studies of dozens of patients for testing, and a negative autism trial of 60 children.

Secretin is a diagnostic agent whose approval rests on comparative studies showing the synthetic human form produces the same pancreatic and gastrin responses as the porcine hormone it replaced; those studies involved dozens, not hundreds, of patients. The cited randomized trial of secretin as a treatment, in 60 children with autism, was negative. Trial-grade evidence for the diagnostic uses themselves is thin by design. ¹²

The approval studies compared synthetic human secretin with pig secretin. Some patients were having pancreatic function tests. Others had a known gastrinoma. Peak bicarbonate levels were the same with both. So were gastrin rises. ²

The autism episode is the best-known trial. In 1998, anecdotal reports said a child's autism symptoms improved after secretin given for an endoscopy. Sandler and colleagues then ran a randomized, double-blind trial. It had 60 children aged 3 to 14 with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. They got a single intravenous dose of synthetic human secretin or saline. Over four weeks, secretin brought no significant improvement on any measure. On the Autism Behavior Checklist, the placebo group's scores actually fell further (17.8 points against 8.9). Fifty-six children completed the study. The authors noted the follow-up was short and the trial used a single dose. That left room for argument, but no positive controlled trial followed. ¹

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Reference information only, not medical advice. Drawn from the Secretin article, fact-checked against the cited sources. No dosing anywhere on this site.