Efficacy and Safety of Propofol as a Sole Sedative for fMRI Sedation in Autism Spectrum Disorder Individuals with Low IQ.

It was a single-arm study with no control group, so it cannot show that propofol is better than another sedation method or no sedation. The study included only people with ASD and IQ below 70 who met safety criteria, so it does not show how people with obesity, difficult airways, sleep apnea, respiratory infection, or allergy to propofol or soybeans would respond. Sedation depth was not monitored with a device, and propofol dosing depended on the anesthesiologist's experience. Propofol may affect brain functional connectivity, and the study had no age- and gender-matched normally developing sedation controls to check that effect. Two patients were excluded after completing scans because their IQ scores were above the study limit, and one scan failed because of coughing and low oxygen saturation.

The institution paid for fMRI examinations, and medical insurance covered complications from propofol sedation. No funding source or author conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text.

Do not read this as proof that propofol sedation is safe for every ASD patient. The study excluded people with obesity, difficult airways, sleep apnea, respiratory infection, and propofol or soybean allergy, and it had no control group.