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Anxiety Measure for Children with Autism Found Reliable
A new method devised by a Drexel University professor to diagnose children on the spectrum for anxiety symptoms - which tend to be masked by symptoms of autism - was proven effective in a study published today. “Anxiety is considered an internalizing symptom, in that it is mostly felt by the...
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Simons Foundation: Funder of Basic Science Research, Early Mover in Autism Science
In 2003, Simons Foundation co-founders Marilyn and Jim Simons set out to understand the state of autism science. Having recently awarded a grant or two to scientists working in autism genetics, they were eager to understand how the field as a whole was faring. They convened a small gathering of...
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Autism, Sexuality, and Education
Practitioners often construct their programs of research around their clinical practice. Indeed, this is the case with this inquiry. Several years ago, Albee and Piepenbring had the opportunity to work with K, a 19-year-old Caucasian male with a complicated, and well-documented neuropsychiatric...
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Fragile X Drug Trial Gets $11.5 Million in NIH Funding – UC Davis Mind Institute to Research Promising Therapy for Language Learning
The UC Davis MIND Institute and Rush University Medical Center have been awarded $11.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to test a new therapy designed to improve language learning for children fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is a single-gene disorder and the most common...
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“Give a Spit” to Help Scientists Uncover the “Female Protective Effect” for Autism
For years, we’ve known that four times as many boys as girls are diagnosed with autism. More recently, genetic research has surprisingly shown that the various genes that cause autism are equally distributed in boys and girls. So what explains this difference - why do some girls who have the...
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Sex Differences in Autism: A Treatment Perspective
Sex differences in prevalence have been reported in several mental disorders. For example, the prevalence of trichotillomania, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa are reported to be as much as 10 times more common in girls than boys (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). By contrast, autism...
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Psychiatric Problems Common in Siblings of People with Autism
Psychiatric problems crop up more than twice as often in families that include a child with autism as in the general population. That’s the upshot of the most sweeping study to date of mental health in siblings of children with autism. The findings suggest that clinicians should look...
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The Role of Novel Research Technologies in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Mobile devices are woven into the fabric of our typical day. Portable technologies such as the iPhone, iPad and wearable activity trackers like Fitbit have significantly transformed not only how we communicate but also enable us to collect an enormous amount of health relevant data and information...
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“CRISPR” Way to Cut Genes Speeds Advances in Autism
Less than three years ago, two landmark publications in Science gave researchers a quick and easy recipe for tinkering with genes.1,2 The papers described a new tool — a modified enzyme called CRISPR-CAS9 — that allows researchers to reach into the genome and snip, or substitute, DNA sequences...
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Exploring How Parents Choose ASD Treatments
Today, 1 in every 50 children is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (CDC, 2013). There are hundreds of treatments, ranging from behavioral and educational therapies to traditional and complementary alternative therapies to downright dangerous therapies (e.g., Leskovec, Rowles, &...
