Autism
May is Mental Health Month. (Or Mental Health Awareness Month, depending on the website.) :) Here are some resources you might find helpful: National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): www.nami.org NAMI StigmaBusters is "a network of dedicated advocates across the country and around the world who seek to fight inaccurate and hurtful representations of mental illness". [...]
ScienceDaily (2011-02-22) -- A computational physicist and a cognitive neuroscientist have come up with the beginnings of a noninvasive test to evaluate an infant's autism risk. It combines the standard electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the brain, with machine-learning algorithms. In a pilot study, their system had 80 percent accuracy in distinguishing between 9-month-old [...]
From DailyFinance, an AOL Money & Finance Site: The High Cost of Autism: One Parent's Tale By JONATHAN BERR Posted 3:30 PM 01/12/11 Having an autistic child can be as big a challenge financially as it can be psychologically. Parents often spend thousands of dollars in the hopes, fleeting as they may be, of finding a [...]
ScienceDaily (2010-12-30) -- The ability to find shoes in the bedroom, apples in a supermarket, or a favorite animal at the zoo is impaired among children with autism, according to new research from the UK. They are unable to search effectively for objects in real-life situations -- a skill that is essential for achieving independence in [...]
The Lancet, a British medical journal, has retracted a 1998 study that linked vaccines to autism. It is rare for a medical journal, especially one of The Lancet's prestige, to retract an article. The article by Katie Drummon,"1998 Study Linking Autism to MMR Vaccine Is Retracted", states that The Lancet retracted the study: after an independent [...]
Mike Porath, editor-in-chief of Sphere.com, writes about his autistic daughter being diagnosed with Chromosome 15q Duplication Syndrome. The article states that Chromosome 15q Duplication Syndrome is "the most frequently identified chromosome mutation in people with autism". (Keep in mind that we are still learning about chromosomes and their impact on autism, so this information may change [...]
Around 52 to 95% of children with autism are treated with complementary alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. A survey asked 539 physicians (90% of whom were pediatricians) about their practices and attitudes about CAM therapies for autism. The most encouraged CAM therapies: - Multivitamins 49% - Essential Fatty Acids 25% - Melatonin 25% - Probiotics 19% CAM [...]
Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half those cases resulting from parents who rejected vaccinations. Wall Street Journal story The U.S. typically sees only one outbreak of measles every year, affecting 10 to 20 people. In the past seven months, there have been seven outbreaks. [...]
In 2003, we were a site that participated in conducting a clinical trial for Secretin. The purpose of the study was to determine safety and efficacy of Secretin versus placebo in the treatment of Autism symptoms. Unfortunately, the study results found that there was no difference in symptom change between children on Secretin and those on placebo. Here's an article on [...]
Frequently, parents ask me if there is any connection between vaccinations and the rate of autism. I have not seen any solid scientific evidence linking vaccinations to autism. Autism symptoms become most evident around the age of 18 months because that is when many parents notice that their child is not as verbal as other children. This is [...]