Category: Autism

Jacob Goldstein
If some people are using a treatment that most doctors think doesn’t work and may involve some real risks, should public health officials study the intervention to get clear answers? That’s an ethically tricky question.
The National Institute of Mental Health had proposed a study (described here) of a therapy called chelation to […]

JGrimes
More people have been becoming infected with measles lately, at the same time as more parents are refusing to vaccinate their kids. A concern among such parents is their belief that the vaccine is linked to autism.
Researchers at Columbia University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought to allay some of […]

JGrimes
Many parents, concerned about risks from childhood vaccines, are putting the kibosh on shots for their kids despite advice from government officials, the medical establishment and academics.
Gaps in immunization are starting to show. A lack of vaccination against measles was known or suspected in 63 of 64 U.S. cases of the disease in […]

Jacob Goldstein
Treating autism at a very young age can improve language skills and IQ scores. But the condition can be tough to detect in the very young, and often isn’t diagnosed until age 4 or so.
Researchers are trying to change that by studying children as young as a few months old, paying […]

JGrimes
Zackary Villeneuve, a 6-year-old autistic boy, was overwhelmed by the Internet. So his grandfather, who works in the software business, had a special browser built for him.
It’s called the Zac Browser for Autistic Children, and it’s available free at zacbrowser.com to anyone who wants it. (We tried to download it for a test […]

JGrimes
Parents of children with autism are about twice as likely to have been hospitalized for mental disorders than parents of other kids, says a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Depression and personality disorders were more common among mothers but not fathers of autistic kids. The researchers found that schizophrenia was about twice as […]

JGrimes
Toddlers born prematurely show more signs of autism on a screening test than children born at full term, according to a study that appears in the journal Pediatrics.
iStockphoto
In this study, which had a relatively small sample of 91 kids, 26% scored failed the autism screener. But having some autistic-like features is not the […]

JGrimes
The father of a girl who developed autism-like symptoms after receiving several vaccinations in a single sitting doesn’t oppose vaccines.
“I want to make it clear I am not anti-vaccine,” Jon Poling, who has an MD and a PhD, told WebMD. “Vaccines are one of the most important, if not the most important advance, […]

JGrimes
Going against the opinion of America’s top public health agencies, John McCain has suggested that autism may be linked to thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury that used to be common in children’s vaccines.
“It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children,” McCain (pictured) reportedly said while campaigning recently in Texas. “The question […]

JGrimes
Researchers have found a genetic mutation that shows up in about 1% of people with autism and appears to be almost entirely absent from the population at large.
It’s a small but significant finding that illuminates some real challenges. First, it will be difficult to put genetic screening to practical use for autism anytime […]