What's Different About The Brains Of People With Autism?

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Jeff Hudale, who is autistic, demonstrates a face recognition test at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. Researchers use eye tracking devices to monitor and record what he is looking at.

Jeff Hudale, who is autistic, demonstrates a face recognition test at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010. Researchers use eye tracking devices to monitor and record what he is looking at.

Like a lot of people with autism, Jeff Hudale has a brain that's really good at some things.

"I have an unusual aptitude for numbers, namely math computations," he says.

Hudale can do triple-digit multiplication in his head. That sort of ability helped him get a degree in engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. But he says his brain struggles with other subjects like literature and philosophy.

"I like working with things that are rather concrete and structured," he says. "Yeah, I like things with some logic and some rules to it."

So Hudale, who is 40, does fine at his job at a bank. But he doesn't do so well with social interactions, where logic and rules aren't so obvious.

"Most people my age are nowadays married," he says. "But me, not only am I totally single, I've never even had a date."

What Hudale has done for the past 25 years is help scientists understand autism by letting them study his brain.

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What's Different About The Brains Of People With Autism?

Antioxidant May Reduce Irritability In Kids With Autism

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Editor's Choice Main Category: Autism Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;Psychology / Psychiatry Article Date: 04 Jun 2012 - 10:00 PDT

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The pilot trial, conducted by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, involved 31 children aged 3 to 12 years with autism. The study is published in Biological Psychiatry.

The researchers found that NAC reduced irritability and repetitive behaviors of the children. However, before NAC can be recommended for children with autism, larger trials are needed in order to verify results from the pilot trial.

Between 60-70% of children with the disorder suffer from irritability. Antonio Hardan, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Packard Children's explained:

One of the top priorities for researchers is to find new medications to treat autism and its symptoms. At present, aggression, irritability, and mood swings are all associated features of the disorder and are treated with second-generation antipsychotics.

However, these medications cause serious adverse effects including:

Another major problem of autism is the state of drug treatments for its core features, such as repetitive behaviors, social deficits, and language impairment. Hardan said: "Today, in 2012, we have no effective medication to treat repetitive behavior such as hand flapping or any other core features of autism."

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Antioxidant May Reduce Irritability In Kids With Autism

Autism Speaks awards nearly $2.9 million to fund autism research

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Public release date: 21-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jane E. Rubinstein jrubinstein@rubenstein.com 212-843-8287 Autism Speaks

New York, N.Y. (June 21, 2012) Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, today announced the award of new research grants totaling nearly $2.9 million in funding to support autism research. "Suzanne and I are extraordinarily proud of Autism Speaks, not only for funding research projects which have tremendous potential to open new avenues to understanding autism," said Autism Speaks Co-founder Bob Wright, "but in supporting predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows who are the next generation of leaders in autism research."

The projects approved include a Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer Award, ten Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowships and nine Postdoctoral Fellowships in Translational Research. In addition, five targeted research studies which support research across a range of high-priority areas were funded. These include environmental risk factors, understanding the impact of DSM-5 on autism diagnosis, the development of medicines, new behavioral treatments across the lifespan, improved access to early intervention in minority communities and a deeper understanding of autism biology.

"We are extremely gratified by the high quality of these research projects. These projects focus on issues that directly affect the lives of individuals with autism, such as the development of new treatments, the impact of the new diagnostic criteria for autism, and understanding the causes of autism," says Autism Speaks Chief Science Officer Geri Dawson, Ph.D. "and the fellowships are so important for bringing new talent into the field."

The new Trailblazer project was awarded to Raymond Palmer, Ph.D., an expert in preventive medicine and epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center to investigate the use of baby teeth to track exposure to chemicals during the prenatal and postnatal period that may affect autism risk. "The lack of methods to determine environmental exposures during critical periods of early development has long challenged research into environmental risk factors for autism," Dr. Dawson says of the study's importance. Dr. Palmer pioneered the use of lost baby teeth to detect prenatal and early childhood exposure pesticides, drugs and other environmental chemicals in typically developing children. After further validating the method, the goal will be to compare baby teeth from children with autism to those from a control group unaffected by the disorder.

Targeted research projects, reviewed by outside experts and the Autism Speaks Scientific Review Panel address timely autism research studies.

David Mandell, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, will develop and evaluate the effects of a population-based program to improve early diagnosis and referral for autism services in an underserved minority community.

Two projects will use animal models that promise to advance the development of autism medicines. Joseph Buxbaum, Ph.D., of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, will use rat models to identify brain pathways common to several forms of autism. Richard Paylor, Ph.D., of Baylor College of Medicine, will complete his classification of autism-like behaviors in genetically engineered rat models of autism.

At the University of South Carolina, Laura Carpenter, Ph.D. will conduct a study that promises to provide clearer information on the effect of proposed changes to the definition of ASD in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5). She will also assess how these changes will affect the estimated prevalence of autism using two different population-screening methods.

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Dr. Alex Kolevzon develops treatments to target the core symptoms of autism – Video

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28-02-2012 10:23 Dr. Kolevzon, Clinical Director of the Seaver Autism Center, develops new pharmacological treatments to target the core symptoms of autism. Dr. Kolevzon discusses his work with Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF1), which increases neural communication and may ameliorate issues of learning and memory in individuals with autism. Small trials of IGF1 have begun with children with SHANK3 deletion, a genetic condition held by ~1% of individuals with autism. If successful, Dr. Kolevzon and the Seaver Autism Center will conduct trials with the larger autism population.

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Dr. Alex Kolevzon develops treatments to target the core symptoms of autism - Video

Eastday-Autism groups lack staff, funding

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The country's fledgling autism organizations are short of professional staff and government support, a survey released on Sunday shows.

More than half of the autism organizations, or rehabilitation centers, covered in the survey in South China were founded by parents of autistic children, and they raised 75 percent of their initial funding on their own, according to the Shenzhen Autism Society and One Foundation charity, which co-organized the survey.

About 91 percent of the operating costs of these groups are paid by the families of autism sufferers, the report said.

The report is part of a larger national report to be released on April 2, which is 5th World Autism Awareness Day.

The national report, the first of its kind in China, is based on 2,092 questionnaires completed by 56 autism organizations, 988 parents of autistic patients, 510 employees of autism organizations and 538 community organizers. Two-thirds of the questionnaires were submitted from South China.

Liao Yanhui, the secretary-general of the Shenzhen Autism Society, said: "Autism treatment in China faces many difficulties, but there is no statistical support in this field. So we started systematic research in 2009 with financial support from One Foundation."

Wang Ming instructs an autistic 3-year-old in Lanzhou, Gansu province. Wang must repeat the same word as many as 1,000 times before the child can pronounce it.

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News of Autistic Boy Allegedly Put in Bag Sparks Controversy Online – Video

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27-01-2012 11:22 Just before Christmas, the story of a 9-year-old autistic boy from Kentucky began to gain attention both on and offline. The interest was sparked when Christopher Baker's mother, Sandra Baker, found her son immersed in a bag at school. "It wasn't just his body down in it and his head out, his whole body was down inside the bag," she told WebProNews. As she explained, the school had called and asked her to come and get her son because he was "bouncing off the walls." When she arrived and saw what had happened, she was outraged and took the story to local news outlets. Lydia Brown, an autistic college student at Georgetown University, saw the story and decided to create a petition on Change.org. The petition, which has received over 180000 signatures already, calls for the school to take action against the teacher involved as well as comprehensive training for all school personnel. However, as with many viral stories, the Christopher Baker case has generated a fair share of controversy. Some people from the autism community have spoken out in defense of the school saying that therapy bags are often used for treating autistic individuals. Another debatable issue is in regards to how the bag was used. Christopher's mother says he was put into the bag for misbehaving, which raises concerns over the use of seclusion and restraint in the treatment of individuals with disabilities. Amy Dawson, the Founder of the Autism Advocacy and Law Center LLC, told us that seclusion or ...

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SAGE® Labs and Autism Speaks Expand Collaboration to Develop Rat Models for Translational Autism Research

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ST. LOUIS, August 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL) today announced that Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs, an initiative of Sigma Life Science and Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, expanded a collaboration to develop the first rat models with modified autism associated genes, intended to accelerate discovery and translational autism research.

Expansion of the collaboration follows initial behavioral studies demonstrating that the first two publicly available gene knockout rats, part of the seven rats generated through the collaboration to date, exhibit hallmark characteristics of autism, such as social deficits and repetitive behaviors. Many behavioral characteristics of autism observed in these rats are not seen in other animal models currently used for autism research. SAGE Labs and Autism Speaks now plan to generate additional genetically modified rat models of key autism-associated genes, including CNTNAP2 and MET.

"Autism spectrum disorders are a complex condition with significant unmet medical needs. Although uniquely human, fundamental aspects of the biology underlying autism can be effectively modeled in animals to advance our understanding of cause and enable translation of basic scientific discovery into medical breakthroughs that improve the quality of life for individuals on the spectrum," says Robert Ring, Ph.D., Vice President of Translational Research at Autism Speaks. "These new autism-relevant rat models have already demonstrated great potential for the field. Our new agreement ensures that additional models will continue to be developed and made available to accelerate progress along the entire translational research continuum, from academia to the pharmaceutical industry."

"Modeling human conditions in rats, rather than the mice that have come to predominate preclinical studies, enables more predictive studies of complex neurobehavioral conditions. Rats are unique in that they exhibit richer, more human-like social behaviors than mice, juvenile play being one example. The more complex neural circuitry and greater cognitive capacity in rats also enables researchers to complete many of the demandingand crucially informativecognitive tests that mice cannot perform. In addition, on a practical level, performing initial studies in rats also provides a direct path for drug development," says Edward Weinstein, Ph.D., Director of SAGE Labs.

Initial behavioral studies of the gene knockout rats generated by SAGE Labs are being conducted by Richard E. Paylor, Ph.D., Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. In some cases, behaviors observed in the rat models have differed from existing mouse models. For example, whereas FMR1 knockout mice exhibit elevated social interactions, rats lacking the same gene participate much less in social play and emit fewer ultrasonic squeaks during play sessions than control rats. These types of social impairments, such as reduced verbal and interactive play, more closely parallel social behavior symptoms seen in humans with FMR1 mutations. Rat models lacking functional NLGN3 and FMR1 genes also display other unexpected characteristics, including compulsive chewing on water bottles and wood blocks. Compulsive and repetitive behaviors are core symptoms in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

"At SAGE Labs we use CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease technology to perform targeted genetic modifications in species previously not amenable to such modifications be it gene knockout, transgene insertion, point mutations, or conditional gene knockout. We can help researchers and pharmaceutical companies access rats, rabbits and other species that best model a medical condition of interest and provide a direct path for preclinical efficacy and toxicology testing," says Weinstein.

Currently SAGE Labs publicly provides two rat lines with knockouts of autism-associated FMR1 and NLGN3 genes. The remaining five gene knockout rat lines developed in the original collaborationfor the genes MECP2, NRXN1, CACNA1C, PTEN, and MGLUR5are expected to be released soon. The CNTNAP2 and MET knockout rat lines to be generated in the expanded collaboration are expected to be available in 2013.

In a separate collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, SAGE Labs created the first animal models of Parkinson's disease that display deficits in movement similar to those developed by humans. Other genetically modified research models created by SAGE Labs include rats for Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, cancer, and cardiovascular disease research, as well as rats for toxicology testing in drug development. SAGE Labs' model generation services are available for rats, rabbits, mice and other organisms.

For more information, visit http://www.sageresearchmodels.com.

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "enable," "initial data demonstrates," "predictive," "encourage" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that gene knockout rat models of autism-associated genes or related services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with gene knockout rat models of autism-associated genes or related services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Teachers get lesson on autism awareness

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As autism awareness increases, questions regarding the disorder are changing especially for teachers.

Cherie Arnn, director of autism services for the Madeline Center on West Main Street in Danville, taught certification courses this summer at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research to help teachers work with autistic students.

The first course focused on what to expect from the student and the second was on behavior modification.

Arnn says the most common misconception regarding children with autism is that they cannot be taught.

They can be taught through increasing visual strategies in the classroom, said Arnn in a news release. With rates of autism going up, more teachers are familiar with the disorder so they are beginning to ask how to teach these students.

Arnn they respond better to visual stimulation than audible instructions.

At the Madeline Centers Danville office, Arnn works all aspects of autism, from behavioral analysis to family training to teaching certification.

The autism teaching certification classes are taught at Averett University, which opened the Carrington Autism Resource Center to help children in the region in November. Now the classes are housed at the Institute. Arnn the center can use the Institutes massive resources and reach a wider range of people.

Most of the teachers are local, but some come from outside the area just because the certification is often highly sought out.

Arnn has taught the classes for several years now.

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Brain scans may detect autism in babies and toddlers

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One study examines the brain's organization of white matter, while another measures its electrical activity -- in both cases, to detect autism.

Two separate studies published this month indicate that it may be possible to use brain imaging techniques to reliably detect autism in children as young as 6 months of age.

In the first study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers from across North America working on the larger and ongoing Infant Brain Imaging Study used a type of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging to study 92 6-month-olds deemed high risk because their older siblings had been diagnosed with autism.

What they found is that the organization of white matter in the brain plays a key role. Specifically, they looked at fractional anisotropy (FA), which in this case measured white matter organization using the movement of water through tissue. They found that FA values were higher in 6-month-old infants who went on to develop autism, but then underwent a dramatic drop over the ensuing months and were ultimately lower than the values of those without autism when measured again at 2 years of age.

"Infancy is a time when the brain is being organized and connections are developing rapidly," Dr. Alan Evans, co-investigator out of McGill University in Montreal, said in a news release. "Our international research team was able to detect differences in the wiring by six months of age in those children who went on to develop autism."

Meanwhile, a larger study published in the journal BMC Medicine investigated patterns of electrical activity in the brains of almost 1,000 children between the ages of 2 and 12. Using electroencephalograms (EEGs) consisting of caps of 24 electrodes, researchers identified 33 patterns they say can reliably distinguish children who have autism from those who do not.

The majority of the 33 patterns revealed decreased brain activity -- particularly on the left side of the brain, which is responsible for communication -- but roughly a third of the patterns showed increased activity.

"They may be the brain's attempt to overcompensate for the regions that should be working together," Frank Duffy, a developmental neurophysiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, told WebMD. "There's also a high association of autism with seizure disorders. An over-connected brain may be more prone to seizures than an under-connected brain."

Researchers from both studies say they hope their methods and findings will pave the way to the very early detection of autism, as early intervention could in turn help improve children's outcomes later in life.

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Mid-South Autism Conference at Landers Center in Southaven

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The second annual Mid-South Autism Conference opens Monday at Landers Center in Southaven and continues through Wednesday.

Sponsored by Transformations Autism Treatment Center, the event is expected to attract hundreds of families and professionals alike.

"Last year, we had over 700 people attend the conference in Tunica," said John Holtzman, one of the conference coordinators and director of development at Transformations. "It made a big impact, and we hope to continue with this year's conference."

Holtzman said he and Transformations Center executive director Tracy Palm saw the need for the conference, and they hope it will help families learn about treatment options and also equip professionals with tools to help the families they serve.

He pointed to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and statistics as the reason this conference and others like it across the country are vital.

"The CDC announced that autism is at an epidemic level. About 1 in 88 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder and 1 and 54 boys," he said.

The theme of this year's conference is "Reason for Hope" and that's what Holtzman hopes attendees take away with them.

This year's keynote speaker is Dr. Carl Sundberg, president and executive director of the Behavior Analysis Center for Autism in Fishers, Ind.

Sundberg will make his keynote address, "The Essentials of Effective Treatment," on Monday's opening day.

He will also speak Tuesday during a presentation titled "Teaching in the Natural Environment."

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Mid-South Autism Conference at Landers Center in Southaven

Autism researchers looking to baby teeth

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas -

Autism is a complex disorder causing a disruption in people's ability to communicate and socialize - and it's a problem that's growing.

According to Ray Palmer, Ph.D., with the University of Texas Health Science Center, autism rates have hit one in 88. While many scientists believe it could be triggered by a genetic predisposition combined with environmental exposure, nobody knows why it affects so many children.

He and his team are taking a new approach to studying Autism using discarded baby teeth. Donated teeth from children with and without autism are ground up into powder, made into liquid and gas and put through a process called mass spectrometry. It can reveal compounds like pesticides, plastics, even medicine the child was exposed to in the womb and as they grew.

"It's been done by looking at blood or hair analysis, but that's only a snapshot in time of recent exposure," said Palmer. "It doesn't provide a historical record of exposure like the teeth do. So, when the teeth are forming, that's a record of what you've been exposed to in-utero."

This kind of research is called tooth fairy studies. The group Autism Speaks has provided $100,000 for the study.

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Autism Surge Due To Diagnostic Changes, Analysis Finds

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Autism Surge Due To Diagnostic Changes, Analysis Finds

Autism awareness event held

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PALMER, Mass. (WWLP) - Families who love someone with autism gathered in Palmer Saturday for their big kickoff event leading up to their awareness walk in September.

Every 11 minutes, a family receives the devastating diagnosis that their child falls within the autism spectrum. For Luisa Balula of Ludlow, that day came when son Lucas was four.

He just didn't progress. He was talking, playing, but he wasn't going past two-year-old words, she said.

But Luisa's nightmare grew worse. Within two years she learned her younger son Daniel also suffers from autism.

Worse than ever. My life was worse than ever. I found out and I couldn't do nothing about it, she said.

Families who love someone with autism struggle with the full time job of keeping their child safe and trying to meet their many needs. Some of those needs are ones that parents have to guess.

Him not speaking, not telling me what's going on. When he's crying you don't know why he's crying, Luisa said.

As a single mother, Luisa relies on her family and friends for support. Her friend Nancy wishes people realized they can ask questions.

She'd rather someone ask what's going on instead of staring and thinking her kids aren't behaving. They are behaving, they're just being them, said Nancy Rodrigues of Ludlow.

Luisa's one hope is for autism awareness to grow, so that when her boys are just being themselves, they'll be understood and accepted.

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Families of kids with autism appreciate added state funding

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Missouri is making a move to increase access to services for more children with autism. On Thursday, Gov.Jay Nixon ceremonially signed a bill that had support from both Republicans and Democrats in the Missouri Legislature this year. Even in a tight budget year, Nixon says helping Missouri families deal with autism is a priority.

Nixon signed the legislation at the Burrell Autism Center. It directs an additional $750,000 towards autism services.

We are in this for the long haul. As science moves forward and a greater number of those on the spectrum come to light, we are going to need to continue to evolve both in the care and treatment and the resources we provide for that, Nixon told reporters.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health provides autism services to 2,500 families. The services help with skill development and give training for families. The appropriations bill, HB2010, signed by Nixon extends services to about 375 more children in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

That includes families like the Opfers.

I think we noticed from the beginning something was different. We had a lot of sensory issues. We did not know what a sensory processing disorder was, said Dana Opfer.

Their son Ian, has autism.

It's important for parents to know that there is funding available for resources that are not covered by insurance,

This additional funding will shorten the waiting line for families seeking help.

Putting these additional dollars in will help families deal with the challenges of autism, the governor said.

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Families of kids with autism appreciate added state funding

Coverage for Autism Treatment Starts July 1

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A behaviorally based treatment for autism that is widely considered one of the most effective ways to help children with the condition will come within reach of thousands of California families when a new law kicks in July 1.

Until now, insurance companies have classified the treatment, which can involve several hours per day of therapy and cost thousands of dollars each month, as educational rather than medical.

The new state law, however, will require most plans to cover it.

Its very important that insurance companies fund this because its medically necessary, said Dr. Susan Schmidt-Lackner, an autism specialist who is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA. Behavioral interventions are one of the mainstays of treatment for autism.

The treatment, called applied behavioral analysis, involves no medication and no special diets. Instead, therapists use a highly focused reward system to distill even the most complicated human interactions into a series of very simple steps that almost anyone can learn.

Monday, July 2: NBC4 Hosts Experts to Answer Your Questions About Behaviorally Based Treatment for Autism

These techniques are so effective that some children who receive the treatment are no longer considered autistic after theyve had it. Others make years of progress in a few months.

But behavioral interventions are expensive, because they require hours of one-on-one work with every child or adult who receives them. A team of behaviorists may spend 25 to 40 hours per week working with a single child.

We break down a complex skill into teachable units, said Paige Raetz, a behavior analyst and clinical director for Trumpet Behavioral Health.

An act as seemingly simple as learning to look another person in the eye, for example, may simply begin with a reward for a child who responds when a therapist calls his name. Another reward perhaps a small piece of candy might be proffered when the child comes to sit at a table where the therapist is waiting.

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Coverage for Autism Treatment Starts July 1

Autism can be detected in the brain of infants as young as 6 months old.

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MONTREAL - The hope of early diagnosis for autism took a step forward on Thursday as a new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital showed that signs of autism may be detected in the brain of infants as young as 6 months old.

The finding, which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, could lead to early intervention for children with autism.

Using specialized screening, the study found significant differences in the brain development of infants at high risk for autism starting as early as 6 months.

And the study illustrates how an emerging area of brain imaging research may lead to a much better understanding of how the brain is wired and connected.

This is not just about autism, it has ramifications across the board, said Alan Evans, a lead researcher on the study from the Neuro who is also director of the Montreal Consortium for Brain Imaging Research. We are standing on the threshold of a whole new approach to brain science.

After hearing about the human genome all these years, we now have the connectome. Evans says this is the next phase in neuroscience, that it offers a more complex and rewarding characterization of the brain.

Developing these new technologies offer us a noninvasive window into normal and abnormal brain development which was basically impossible 10 years ago, he said in an interview.

The study used a special type of MRI scan, known as diffusion tensor imaging, which allows for more sophisticated analysis and imaging. It showed abnormal brain development may be detected before the appearance of autism symptoms in an infants first year of life. Autism is typically diagnosed around the age of 2 or 3 years when symptoms appear, such as problems with communication, social interaction and behaviour.

But research shows that symptoms can improve with early intervention so early diagnosis is key.

Evans doesnt foresee this type of scanning to be used on every infant, as it would be very costly. But he does believe if the research is reproduced these types of scans will one day be routine for siblings of children with autism, who have about a 15-per-cent likelihood of developing the disorder.

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Autism can be detected in the brain of infants as young as 6 months old.

Fevers during pregnancy linked to autism, but medication helps

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Women who reported having had a fever during pregnancy were more likely to give birth to a baby who would later be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or a development delay, says a major new study. But the babies of women who treated their fevers with medication fared no worse than babies whose mothers recalled having suffered no fevers at all.

The findings, wrote the authors, "suggest that anti-fever medication used to control fever during pregnancy can reduce or eliminate" the apparent link between maternal fever and autism.

The study, by researchers at UC Davis' MIND Institute, was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. It wades into a tempestuous debate over what environmental factors in pregnancy might contribute to autism -- and to an apparent increase in autism over the last several decades. Several studies have yielded conflicting findings over whether a link exists between infections during pregnancy and a baby's risk for autism. Many of those studies, however, have been marred by small population sizes and their reliance on a mother's recall, or medical records, of infection.

The current study, called Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment (CHARGE), sought to avoid those pitfalls. Researchers enrolled babies and their mothers into the major population study when the infants were between the ages of 2 and 5. Between January 2003 and September 2010, 1,122 babies were enrolled--538 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, 163 with developmental delays that were not thought to be autism, and 421 typically developing children. Their mothers were interviewed at length about their pregnancies; whether they were vaccinated against flu; whether and when in their pregnancies they suffered infection, flu, or fevers; and what medication, if any, they took in response.

Researchers found no link between a woman's report of having had influenza--or a flu vaccine shot--during pregnancy, and the baby that would go on to have autism or developmental delay. But asking about fevers--the body's immune response to a wide range of infections, including influenza--yielded a different response.

All told, 191 of the participating mothers reported that they had suffered a fever in the course of pregnancy. Of those, 76 said they treated themselves with medication designed to lower fever--products containing acetaminophen or ibuprofen. But 115 did not take any such medication, or reported they took medication that would not have acted to lower fever.

Compared with babies whose mothers reported no fevers during pregnancy, the babies of mothers who had fevers were about 2 1/2 times more likely to be diagnosed later with a communications disorder on the autism spectrum, and 2 3/4 times more likely to have developmental delays.

Medication to drive down elevated body temperature helped avoid developmental delays by a little: When a pregnant woman took fever medication, her baby's odds of having a developmental delay went down to twice the probability of a mother-baby pair that experienced no fevers.

But medication to drive down fever appeared to markedly drive down the odds that a baby would go on to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The babies of these women were only about 30% more likely to develop autism.

The results, suggest the authors, parallel findings in pregnant rats and mice--that when an animal's massive inflammatory response to an infection is suppressed, the development of behavioral abnormalities in the resulting offspring is reduced.

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Fevers during pregnancy linked to autism, but medication helps

MONROE: Towns went âBlueâ for National Autism Month

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MONROE April was recognized across the United States as National Autism Month and served as an opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and the issues within the autism community.

Resident Kimberley Toto decided to go bigger this year and promoted more awareness during World Autism Awareness Day April 2, and not only included the schools but made it a community wide event and asked the two local communities to light it up blue.

This marked her third year promoting this campaign through Autism Speaks, where prominent buildings across North America turned their lights blue in honor of World Autism Awareness Day.

The Empire State Building in New York City did the same thing to promote awareness for the condition.

Inspired by this, Ms. Toto used spotlights and blue Christmas lights on her home in April.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors, according to the Autism Speaks website, http://www.autismspeaks.org.

When my daughter was diagnosed it was 1 in 150. In the last several years the numbers increased to 1 in 110, Ms. Toto said. Right before the month of April 2012, the Centers for Disease Control came out with new numbers. It is now 1 in 88 kids that are affected with some form of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify around 1 in 88 American children as on the autism spectruma 10-fold increase in prevalence in 40 years, according to the organization. Careful research shows that this increase is only partly explained by improved diagnosis and awareness.

Studies also show that autism is three to four times more common among boys than girls. An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States, according to the Autism Speaks website.

By way of comparison, this is more children than are affected by diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Down syndrome, combined, according to the organization.

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MONROE: Towns went âBlueâ for National Autism Month