Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

New sensory tools for younger children

The recent results of the National Survey of Children's Health showed roughly 1 in 90 US children are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Add to this the gamut of other disorders (Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Anxiety disorders, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), etc.) our children can be faced with, and it isn't surprising that an increasing number of special needs children are in our classrooms.

11 Feb 2010

Today's OpEds: Prescriptions for health reform

The best ideas out there are not those that were passed by the House and Senate last year, which consist of more spending, more regulations and more bureaucracy. If the president is serious about building a system that delivers more quality choices at lower cost for every American, here's where he should start (Newt Gingrich and John C. Goodman, 2/10).

11 Feb 2010

Mental health 'bible' starts revamp with new terminology, diagnoses

The Wall Street Journal: "Mental-health experts wrestling with how to fit temper tantrums, hoarding and even Internet addiction into the current understanding of mental illness are proposing changes to the field's primary reference for diagnoses for the first time in 16 years. The draft revisions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the bible for mental health clinicians and researchers—unveiled Wednesday could have effects that ripple through mental health care."

11 Feb 2010

Seaside Therapeutics granted U.S patent covering methods of treating autism

Seaside Therapeutics LLC today announced the issuance of U.S. patent 7,648,993 B2 (‘993 patent), which covers methods of treating autism with group 1 antagonists of the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) pathway. An earlier related patent, U.S. patent 6,890,931 B2 (‘931 patent), was issued in 2005 and covers methods of treating Fragile X Syndrome, the most common known cause of autism, with group 1 antagonists of the mGluR pathway.

10 Feb 2010

Autism Speaks: Ten most significant autism research achievements in 2009

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization has released its annual list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year. Every year, Autism Speaks documents the progress made toward its mission to discover the causes and treatment for autism spectrum disorders, and compiles a list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year.

10 Feb 2010

Measles vaccine does not increase risk of autism in children, reveals Polish study

As a pivotal paper linking childhood vaccinations to autism is discredited, a new study finds no evidence that the measles vaccine—given alone or as part of a combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—increases the risk of autism in children. The study appears in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (www.pidj.com), published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy.

10 Feb 2010

APA releases proposed draft diagnostic criteria for DSM-5

The American Psychiatric Association today released the proposed draft diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The draft criteria represent content changes under consideration for DSM, which is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health and other health professionals, and is used for diagnostic and research purposes.

10 Feb 2010

Advanced paternal age increases autism risk only when the mother is younger

Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father's age, according to an exhaustive study of all births in California during the 1990s by UC Davis Health System researchers. Advanced paternal age is associated with elevated autism risk only when the father is older and the mother is under 30, the study found.

9 Feb 2010

Finding provides new insight into economic behavior of human beings

Neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and their colleagues have tied the human aversion to losing money to a specific structure in the brain-the amygdala.

9 Feb 2010

Project Lifesaver International, Xanboo to offer medical facilities to help people with cognitive disorder

Project Lifesaver International, a non-profit organization specializing in training public safety agencies on search and rescue programs to help individuals with cognitive conditions that wander, announced today they will be teaming with Xanboo, a wireless equipment company that supplies a wide variety of intrusion and security products, including indoor and outdoor cameras, control of lighting, door/window censors, and other security products.

5 Feb 2010

Scholarships for Special Needs Life Quality Plans available to underserved families

The Training, Education & Research Institute (TERI) led International Association for Life Quality (IALQ) – a national leader dedicated to identifying and removing barriers to a quality life for those with developmental disabilities – announced scholarships for Special Needs Life Quality Plans™ will be available to underserved families with a child with autism or other developmental disability.

5 Feb 2010

LDDI releases biomonitoring report on environmental neurotoxins in health affected community

The Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) today released the first-ever biomonitoring report identifying toxic chemical pollution in people from the learning and developmental disability community.

5 Feb 2010

Expert available to discuss Lancet’s retraction of paper on autism study

Rae Sonnenmeier, clinical associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at the University of New Hampshire and staff member at UNH's Institute on Disability, is available to discuss the announcement yesterday (Feb. 2, 2010) by the medical journal The Lancet regarding the retraction of a paper that caused a 12-year international battle over the links between the three-in-one childhood vaccine MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and autism.

4 Feb 2010

Around seven in every thousand morbidly obese people are missing part of their DNA

A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published today in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other European Centres, say that missing DNA such as that identified in this research may be having a dramatic effect on some people's weight.

4 Feb 2010

Defective chromosome cause of severe obesity

A new cause of obesity due to a defect on chromosome 16 has just been discovered. It is thought to explain close to 1% of obesity cases. For carriers of the defect, the risk of becoming overweight is 50 times higher. This research is the result of close cooperation between the team of Professor Froguel, a CNRS researcher, in Lille, and colleagues at Imperial College in London and Vaudois University Hospital in Lausanne, with the support of ten other European research groups. The findings of the study are to be published in Nature on February 4, 2010.

4 Feb 2010

Research retraction underscores the safety and efficacy of MMR vaccines

The Lancet, a premier British medical journal, today retracted a study published in 1998 that drew a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and increased incidence of autism.

3 Feb 2010

Is there a link to rising rates of autism, ADHD and other learning and developmental disabilities?

Jeff Sell, father of twin sons with autism ,Vice President for Policy at the Autism Society; Maureen H. Swanson, Healthy Children Project Coordinator, Learning Disabilities Association of America; Larry Silver MD, author of the Understanding and Coping with Your Child's Learning Disabilities; and others will join Andy Igrejas, National Campaign Director of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign on a national telephone news briefing for the release of Mind, Disrupted: How Toxic Chemicals May Affect How We Think and Who We Are, produced by the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI).

3 Feb 2010

Study linking autism and vaccines is retracted by medical journal

The Lancet has formally retracted a controversial paper published 12 years ago that purported the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism.

3 Feb 2010

Video campaign teaches parents on how to minimize risk from toxic chemicals

Chronic childhood illnesses – asthma, allergies, autism, cancer, obesity and diabetes – are plaguing our nation, and credible scientific evidence links chemical exposure to many of these conditions.

3 Feb 2010

Campbell government cuts EIBI program for ASD children

On Friday, B.C.'s last centre offering intensive autism treatment for children under 6 closed its doors. The provincial government had cancelled all funding, eliminated 42 jobs and cut adrift all the children currently being treated and all those on the waiting list.

2 Feb 2010