Modern Medicine News

A scientist at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to help study a rare cell type that is believed to play a role in quick decision making and intuition. Abnormalities in this cell type have been seen in people suffering from autism and dementia.

Just since midnight, over 50,000 letters have gone to President Barack Obama and others as part of a new campaign to bring attention to the rising numbers of autism cases.

LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. LAS — the first automatic and totally objective autism screen is now as accurate or more accurate than other autism screens currently available to parents and clinicians.

Autism can build a wall of poor communication between those struggling with the condition and their families. While a personal computer can help bridge the divide, the distraction and complexity of a keyboard can be an insurmountable obstacle.

Autistic children struggle to understand the meaning behind a smile. This is the finding of a study published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology online, today, 21st August 2009. Eight boys diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder ranging in age from 5 to 15, took part in the study carried out by Professor Lucy Johnston from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Using advanced brain imaging and genomics technologies, an international team of researchers co-led by Scripps Research Institute scientists has shown for the first time that natural variations in a specific gene influence brain structure.

Autism campaigners Ivan Corea of the UK Autism Foundation and Kevin Healey Chairman of the Staffordshire Adults Autistic Society (who has Asperger's Syndrome) have issued a joint appeal on Gary McKinnon to President Barack Obama at the White House.

The way people with autism see and process the body language of others could be preventing them from gauging people's feelings, according to new research. With around half a million people in the UK affected by autism, the Durham University study suggests visual processing problems could be contributing to their day-to-day difficulties with social interaction.

The Financial Secretary to Her Majesty's Government, Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP has written to Ivan Corea of the UK Autism Foundation, pledging support for families with autism. The UK Autism Foundation has been lobbying and campaigning on behalf of families with autism who are below the poverty line.

In June 2009, newspapers reported that archaeologists in Germany had discovered a 35,000-year-old flute made of bird bone. It represented, one paper said, «the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture.» And we have been tapping our toes, humming along, singing and dancing ever since. The power of music affects all of us and has long appealed to our emotions.

Commenting on today's speech by Conservative Party Leader Rt Hon David Cameron MP at the Research Autism Conference in London, Lesa Walton — Care & Development Director of specialist Autism care provider Brookdale Care — said today: "Brookdale Care is delighted that David

Highly intelligent adults with Asperger Syndrome still have difficulties in day-to-day social interaction. These difficulties may be explained by 'mindblindness', the idea that they are unable to predict what other people will do by thinking about their mental states, that is, their knowledge and beliefs.

Social cognition — the ability to think about the minds and mental states of others — is essential for human beings. In the last decade, a group of regions has been discovered in the human brain that are specifically used for social cognition. A new study in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development investigates these brain regions for the first time in human children.

New research at Queen's University shows that the way preschool children understand false beliefs can be linked to particular aspects of brain development. This landmark research may aid in understanding developmental disorders such as autism. One of the most important ways that preschool children develop socially is by learning how to understand others people's thoughts and feelings.

The National Autistic Society, urged that new reforms should not be allowed further marginalise people with disabilities, including autism, in a bid to fulfil a black hole in social care funding.

Ask any mother and she'll tell you that raising a preschooler is no easy task. Now imagine what it must be like to bring up a child with autism or a developmental delay.

Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have collaborated to uncover important new insights into the neurological basis of autism. Their new study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, examined patterns of movement as children with autism and typically developing children learned to control a novel tool.

Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have collaborated to uncover important new insights into the neurological basis of autism. Their new study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, examined patterns of movement as children with autism and typically developing children learned to control a novel tool.

Since the 1970s, there has been much debate surrounding the fact that individuals with autism have difficulty in understanding speech in situations where there is background speech or noise. At the annual meeting of the International Multisensory Research Forum (June 29th — July 2nd) held at The City College of New York (CCNY), neuroscientists announced conclusive evidence to verify this fact.

HOPE, the charity for adults with autism and learning disabilities, welcomes the progress of the Autism Bill through Parliament. Its third and final reading in the House of Commons took place on 19th June and its first reading in the House of Lords was on 22nd June.

Researchers at UC Davis have developed a new test that will measure the protein deficit responsible for fragile X syndrome — the single-most common cause of intellectual impairment and the most-commonly inherited cause of autism.

Mice who inherit a particular chromosomal duplication from their fathers show many behaviors associated with human autism, researchers report in the June 26th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press Publication.

The National Autism Association (NAA) along with 12 other organizations launched a campaign this week to spur letter writing and raise awareness about dangerous restraint and seclusion practices in schools.

Pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

More pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and several collaborating institutions.

Scientists have discovered that abnormalities in a gene important for learning and memory are a cause of autism. The University of Aberdeen finding could hold the key to the future development of new treatments for autism — a brain development disorder which affects how a person communicates and relates to others.

Yesterday Rethink Autism, Inc., an educational technology company based in New York City, launched http://www.rethinkautism.com the first online resource to offer parents and professionals immediate access to effective and affordable treatment tools for the growing population affected by autism spectrum disorders.

Yesterday Rethink Autism, Inc., an educational technology company based in New York City, launched http://www.rethinkautism.com the first online resource to offer parents and professionals immediate access to effective and affordable treatment tools for the growing population affected by autism spectrum disorders.

The Department of Health's Specialist Advisor for Autism, Elaine Hill, has publicly urged practitioners, service users, their families and the general public to submit their views and case studies to the Government's consultation on a National Autism Strategy at a national conference on t

The total cost for treating a child with autism can reach $5 million, but insurance companies rarely cover autism therapy and few states mandate it. CBS News reports that «an estimated one in every 150 children in America has autism and the number of reported cases is growing» while "parents are increasingly demanding that insurance companies cover the newest treatment.

The Autism Bill is back in Parliament for its third reading today. Having secured the Government's support it is expected to pass to the House of Lords where it will be well on its way to becoming England's first disability-specific law.

The member of parliament for Feltham and Heston Alan Keen MP together with his wife, Health Minister Ann Keen MP,(Brentford & Isleworth) wrote to the UK Autism Foundation wishing the 'Scope for Hope' autism charity dinner in Feltham every success. Hundreds attended the glittering event, held at the Royal Naval Association Club in Feltham, Middlesex on Saturday 13th June.

Our tendency to see people and faces as individuals may explain why we are such experts at recognizing them, new research indicates. This approach can be learned and applied to other objects as well. "This new research adds to the evidence that the brain processes faces differently because of our expertise with them.

Autistics are up to 40 percent faster at problem-solving than non-autistics, according to a new Université de Montréal and Harvard University study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

NIH and the advocacy group Autism Speaks are enrolling 1,200 pregnant women who have other children with autism spectrum disorders to participate in a large study that aims to identify early signs of the condition and its possible causes, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A new parent questionnaire, developed at the University of Waterloo, will help health practitioners to more accurately gauge the acquisition of language skills in children with autism. The pioneering Language Use Inventory (LUI) is among a set of measures for evaluating spoken language development in children with autism spectrum disorders, recommended by an expert panel.

Brookdale Care, the specialist provider of care services for people living with autism, has today welcomed the National Audit Office's Report on Supporting Adults with Autism and called on the Government to take direct action to implement its recommendations.

The NAO today published a major report, «Supporting people with autism through adulthood». HOPE, the charity for adults with autism and learning disabilities, sees this important report as a blueprint for improving the lives of people with autism.

A network of leading autism researchers from three regions across the country has launched one of the largest research studies of its kind to investigate early risk factors for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The network, called the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI), will follow a cohort of up to 1,200 pregnant women who already have a child with autism.

The National Audit Office (NAO) on Friday released findings from a new report exploring the problems and challenges of supporting adults with autism. The aim of the report was to assess current service provision in areas including: health, social care, education, benefits and employment support.

Mark Lever, NAS chief executive said; "In the current economic climate the Government cannot possibly ignore the huge cost savings and benefits, identified by their own auditing body, of providing adults with autism with the right support at the right time.

The antidepressant citalopram does not appear to reduce the occurrence of repetitive behaviors in children and teens with autism spectrum disorders, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Although the U.S.

The repetitive behaviors exhibited by some children and teens with autism spectrum disorders are not reduced with the antidepressant citalopram, according to a study in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

June 1, 2009: Citalopram (Celexa), a medication commonly prescribed to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), was no more effective than a placebo at reducing repetitive behaviors, according to a multi-site clinical trial guided by lead author Bryan H.

Lee Scott MP for Ilford North who has been campaigning in the House of Commons for parents, carers, children and adults with Asperger's Syndrome is calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Government to increase the carer's allowance for possibly over a million carers who are looking after children and adults with autism and Asperger's Syndrome in the United Kingdom.

An innovative University of Georgia graduate program in special education that has prepared scores of Georgia teachers to work with elementary-age students with autism over the last several years has received a new 4-year, $793,000 federal grant to train teachers to work with similarly challenged secondary-age students.

ASD Centers, LLC has expanded the clinical study started in the Dallas, Texas area to include other locations. This study is designed to examine mitochondrial dysfunction and how L-carnitine supplementation affects behavior, cognition, muscle strength, and health/physical traits in those with a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Teens and children with autism spectrum disorders who were given citalopram, an antidepressant, experienced no change in their repetitive behaviors, according to a study reported in Archives of General Psychiatry. Repetitive behaviors are common among people with autism, as are inflexible routines, which sometimes interfere with everyday life.

A new multi-center study, conducted at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in collaboration with five other centers throughout the country, tested the commonly prescribed antidepressant citalopram and found that it was no more effective than placebo in altering obsessive features of the condition — the spinning, rocking and repetitive behavior.

A new study has confirmed that 1 per cent of children aged between 5− and 9-years-old have an existing diagnosis on the autistic spectrum. The research, published in the June issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, was carried out by the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University.

Sabrina Daneshvar, Ph.D., BCBA-D of Southern California-based Autism Spectrum Therapies (AST), participated in a panel discussion on generalization at the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona, May 22−26, 2009. The discussion addressed strategies for increasing generalization and focused on training approaches that increase success. Dr.

Researchers have identified the locking mechanism that allows some neurons to form synapses to pass along essential information. Mutations of genes that produce a critical cell-adhesion molecule involved in the work were previously linked to autism.

Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt? This week, the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigates why the debunked vaccine-autism theory won't go away.

Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt? This week, the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigates why the debunked vaccine-autism theory won't go away.

Autism Spectrum Therapies (AST), an agency providing behavior therapy and other autism services, now offers new summer programs for children of all ages and their parents. These fun, kid-friendly programs are designed to help children with autism disorders maintain their academic and communication skills over summer vacation and to develop new skills for the upcoming school year.

A unique event to discuss Autism and employment was held at Goldsmiths, University of London this week. For the first time charities, researchers, business and government were brought together to look at how people with Autism, and related disorders, can be supported effectively into employment.

Committees in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a bill that would provide insurance benefits of up to $36,000 annually for autism treatments, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Committees in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a bill that would provide insurance benefits of up to $36,000 annually for autism treatments, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

UCLA scientists have discovered a variant of a gene called CACNA1G that may increase a child's risk of developing autism, particularly in boys. The journal Molecular Psychiatry publishes the findings in its May 19 advance online edition. Classic autism strikes boys four times more often than girls.

Has autism got more common? What's so good about autism? What is it like to live with autism? These are just some of the questions to be answered at a one day autism conference on 24th June at Prior's Court School in Berkshire.

Research published this week in the journal Autism, published by SAGE, estimate the annual costs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to be more than £27 billion a year. The costs of supporting children with ASDs were estimated to be £2.7 billion per year, £25 billion each year for adults. The findings were presented at the Autism & Employment Workshop at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Research published this week in the journal Autism, published by SAGE, estimate the annual costs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to be more than £27 billion a year. The costs of supporting children with ASDs were estimated to be £2.7 billion per year, £25 billion each year for adults. The findings were presented at the Autism & Employment Workshop at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The Government has, for the first time, declared its support for what could be England's first Autism Bill.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina have discovered in mice how a single disrupted gene can cause a form of severe mental retardation known as Angelman syndrome.

Science is largely a collaborative enterprise. Frequently researchers from various disciplines but with some common interests pool their efforts and exchange ideas, to devise new avenues of investigation.

«Timely identification and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can impact a child's development and is the key to opening the door to the services and therapies available to children with autism,» says Paul Shattuck, Ph.D., assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Five people with Autism Spectrum Conditions will meet with Care Services Minister Phil Hope to respond in person to a consultation on Autism which launches today. The meeting will appear online on the National Autistic Society website, You Tube and the new Department of Health consultation webpage.

The first common genetic risk factor for autism spectrum disorder has been identified by a multi-center team of researchers that included Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Pericak-Vance and her collaborator Jonathan Haines, Ph.D.

UCLA scientists, in partnership with 30 research institutions across the country, have identified a new gene variant that is highly common in autistic children. And when researchers scrutinized the activity of the gene, known as CDH10, in the fetal brain, they discovered that it is most active in key regions that support language, speech and interpreting social behavior.

Three new genome-wide association studies bring together the most compelling evidence to date that genes and autism are linked. The studies scanned and compared the entire set of human DNA of people who have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with that of people who do not and found small genetic differences that affect the way brain cells link up to make the circuitry of a child's brain.

In three studies, including the most comprehensive study of autism genetics to date, investigators funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have identified common and rare genetic factors that affect the risk of autism spectrum disorders. The results point to the importance of genes that are involved in forming and maintaining the connections between brain cells.

A research team has connected more of the intricate pieces of the autism puzzle, with two studies that identify genes with important contributions to the disorder. One study pinpoints a gene region that may account for as many as 15 percent of autism cases, while another study identifies missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways.

In the first neuroimaging study to examine motor execution in children with autism, researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute have uncovered important new insight into the neurological basis of autism.

Researchers have made an important step forward in understanding the complex genetic structure of autism spectrum disorders.

Children who are firstborn or breech or whose mothers are 35 or older when giving birth are at significantly greater risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have reported in a new study with Utah children. In the April 27, 2009, online issue of the journal Pediatrics, the researchers showed that women who give birth at 35 or older are 1.

Children who are firstborn or breech or whose mothers are 35 or older when giving birth are at significantly greater risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have reported in a new study with Utah children. In the April 27, 2009, online issue of the journal Pediatrics, the researchers showed that women who give birth at 35 or older are 1.

The Center of Integrative Manual Therapy and Diagnostics (CenterIMT) will be featured on a national talk show profiling CenterIMT's successful treatment of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. CenterIMT, a full spectrum health care clinic, with national locations, is very proud to have the opportunity to share the amazing results of Integrative Manual Therapy.

Today the National Autistic Society (NAS), the UK's leading charity for people affected by autism, urged the Chancellor not to ignore the 300,000 working age adults with the condition, many of whom say they are teetering on the brink of poverty.

Joan Ruddock MP, Under- Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, has personally responded to the UK Autism Foundation, after the charity campaigned hard on the issue of Autism and Fuel Poverty. UKAF has called on HM Government to ease the burdens of families with autism who are below the poverty line by addressing the winter fuel poverty issue.

Responding to the needs of the growing number of Pennsylvanians living with an autism spectrum disorder, Secretary of Public Welfare Estelle B. Richman unveiled three new regional autism centers geared toward improving access to services, education, research and training for families and professionals in need.

New studies in pregnant mice using antibodies against fetal brains made by the mothers of autistic children show that immune cells can cross the placenta and trigger neurobehavioral changes similar to autism in the mouse pups.

New studies in pregnant mice using antibodies against fetal brains made by the mothers of autistic children show that immune cells can cross the placenta and trigger neurobehavioral changes similar to autism in the mouse pups.

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine determined that over-the-counter melatonin medication can shorten the length of time it takes for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), or both to fall asleep at the beginning of the night.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a biologically based neurologic disorder affecting childhood development. Although it has strong genetic underpinnings, it is also a mix of unlike disorders. While ASD has been associated with many medical disorders and syndromes, the nature of such associations still isn't clear.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will deliver his second Budget on the 22nd of April 2009. The budget comes at a time when the United Kingdom and many countries around the world are facing a severe economic crisis and a global recession. The poor are bearing the brunt of the recession. Food prices have gone up — including gluten free products — used by families with autism.

Drs. Sophie Molholm and John Foxe, neuroscientists at The City College of New York (CCNY), have been awarded $2.8 million over five years from the National Institute of Mental Heath of the National Institutes of Health to study whether and how multisensory integration — the nervous system's integration of different sensory stimuli — is impaired in persons with autism.

Why do many autistic people develop outstanding abilities in domains like drawing, music, computation, and reading? What aspects of autism predispose to talent? What can taxi drivers teach us about talent? And could scientists turn anyone into a savant using a real-life thinking cap? For answers to

Phil Hope MP, Minister of State for Care Services at the Department of Health has written to Ivan Corea of the UK Autism Foundation sating that 'Autism is a vitally important issue and we want to do more to support people with the condition and their families. We know that, left unsupported, autism can have a devastating impact on people and families.

Autism is a neurobiological condition which is often responsive to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, yet most health insurance companies fail to provide this medically necessary service to their members. For the past 7 years, AB 88, known as the Mental Health Parity Act, has been on the books in California.

Somali children in Minneapolis have been receiving preschool special education services for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from the city's public schools at higher rates than other children, according to a new study by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

Autistic people living in Somerset are benefiting from one of the few specialist Autism and Asperger Syndrome support teams in the country. Somerset Partnership and NHS Foundation Trust's, Asperger Syndrome Consultancy Service, is made up of a team of specialists who offer help, advice and support to both clients and their carers.

During the first week of class, the teens' eyes were downcast, their responses were mumbled and eye contact was almost nonexistent. By Week 12, though, these same kids were talkative, responsive and engaged. That's the result of a special class designed at UCLA to help teens with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learn to interact appropriately with their peers.

AMC Entertainment® and the Autism Society of America Announce Partnership AMC Entertainment (AMC) and the Autism Society of America (ASA) announced, on World Autism Awareness Day, a formal commitment to their current partnership that aims to include people with autism in their community through work and play.

The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown has outlined the Government's proposals for autism. The Prime Minister was in touch with British autism campaigner Ivan Corea, father of Charin, a 13 year old boy with autism spectrum disorder. This was history in the making — it was the first time that the Prime Minister has written over his plans for autism.

On the occasion of World Autism Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reaffirmed its commitment to provide technical assistance to member states to deliver integrated health services to people with autism and other mental and developmental disorders of childhood.

People with autism will benefit from better services, with the help of a new blueprint for commissioning high quality care published by Care Services Minister, Phil Hope today. Phil Hope is calling upon the NHS to help drive improvements in services for people with autism, starting with using the best practice guidance.

To mark UN World Autism Awareness Day, Cheryl Gillan MP has named the 16 MPs put forward to sit on the Autism Bill Standing Committee. The proposed committee could help to end the devastating postcode lottery of autism services for the half a million people with autism in the UK.

The California Association of Health Plans (CAHP) is joining other organizations in recognizing World Autism Awareness Day by increasing awareness about the wide array of health care services its members provide for autism.

Two-year-olds with autism lack an important building block of social interaction that prompts newborn babies to pay attention to other people. Instead, these children pay attention to physical relationships between movement and sound and miss critical social information. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine report their results in the March 29 online issue of Nature.

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization, has announced a new partnership with the Albanian Children Foundation (ACF) the first international accord in the Global Autism Public Health (GAPH) Initiative. In addition, they announced an agreement with Irish Autism Action to form an advisory committee to facilitate the development of a GAPH partnership.