Brightening the lives of people with autism.

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: March 29, 2012

The likelihood of a child’s being given a diagnosis of autism, Asperger syndrome or a related disorder increased more than 20 percent from 2006 to 2008, according to a report released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new report estimates that in 2008 one child in 88 received one of these diagnoses, known as autism spectrum disorders, by age 8, compared with about one in 110 two years earlier. The estimated rate in 2002 was about one in 155.
The frequency of autism spectrum diagnoses has been increasing for decades, but researchers cannot agree on whether the trend is a result of heightened awareness, an expanding definition of the spectrum, an actual increase in incidence or some combination of those factors. Diagnosing the condition is not an exact science. Children “on the spectrum” vary widely in their abilities and symptoms, from mute and intellectually limited at one extreme to socially awkward at the other.
Children with such diagnoses often receive extensive state-financed support services — which some experts believe may have contributed to an increase in numbers.
Doctors working to update the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders have proposed significant changes to the definition of autism, due to take effect in 2013. If the changes are a carried out, some experts say, they could reduce the number of children being given a diagnosis.
“One thing the data tells us with certainty: There are many children and families who need help,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the C.D.C., said in a news conference on Thursday.
C.D.C. researchers did not meet any of the children they judged to have an autism spectrum disorder. The team made the decisions based on evaluations of the children, drawn from 14 states. The estimated rates in those states varied widely, from one in 210 children in Alabama to one in 47 in Utah.
“This is a fourfold difference,” Dr. Éric Fombonne, a psychiatrist at McGill University and Montreal Children’s Hospital, said in an e-mail. “It means that ascertainment is unequal across states. Thus, in the next surveys, as ascertainment will most likely improve where it is currently low, average rates are bound to increase. Is there, in addition to this, a real increase in incidence? It’s possible, but cannot be determined from the study design.”
Over all, boys were almost five times as likely as girls to get such a diagnosis — at a rate of one in 54, compared with one in 252 for girls. The sharpest increases appeared among Hispanic and black children, who historically have been less likely to receive an autism spectrum diagnosis than white children.

From Medscape Medical News > Psychiatry

Deborah Brauser

January 25, 2012 — Concerns that proposed changes to autism criteria in the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) will exclude many individuals from diagnosis and treatment are unfounded, says the American Psychiatric Association (APA). These changes would include merging diagnoses currently listed separately in the DSM-IV, such as autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (NOS). The DSM-5 proposal calls for incorporating these disorders under a single umbrella category of "autism spectrum disorder."  Read more ...

January 20, 2012
By Autism Society

Changing the definition of autism does not change the need for help.
 

As the nation’s largest grassroots autism organization, the Autism Society’s foremost concern is that individuals with autism have access to the resources and services they need.  As it exists today, the autism spectrum is vast.  We are concerned that individuals who could lose the autism diagnosis may not fall under another classification, and would lose access to the appropriate services.  With these changes, it is equally important that those who diagnose autism spectrum disorders have the training and information needed to diagnose appropriately.

By AMY HARMON
Published: January 20, 2012
New York Times

A study reported on Thursday found that proposed revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s definition would exclude about three-quarters of those now diagnosed with milder forms of autism called Asperger syndrome or “pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified,” also known as P.D.D.-N.O.S. These are people who have difficulties with social interaction but do not share the most severe impairments of children with classic autism.

“He was right on the border, they told me when he got the diagnosis; that’s what scares me,” said Amanda Forman of Flourtown, Pa., whose 5-year-old son was diagnosed two years ago with P.D.D.-N.O.S. After receiving play therapy, occupational therapy and 17 hours a week of behavioral therapy, the boy, who was once unresponsive to other children and engaged in self-destructive behavior, may enter a mainstream kindergarten class next year, his mother said. “What if he has to be re-evaluated? If the criteria were stricter, he might not get these services that have been helping him so much.”

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: August 25, 2011

Yet another panel of scientists has found no evidence that a popular vaccine causes autism. But despite the scientists’ best efforts, their report is unlikely to have any impact on the frustrating debate about the safety of these crucial medicines.
“The M.M.R. vaccine doesn’t cause autism, and the evidence is overwhelming that it doesn’t,” Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the chairwoman of the panel, assembled by the Institute of Medicine, said in an interview. She was referring to a combination against measles, mumps and rubella that has long been a focus of concern from some parents’ groups.
The panel did conclude, however, that there are risks to getting the chickenpox vaccine that can arise years after vaccination. People who have had the vaccine can develop pneumonia, meningitis or hepatitis years later if the virus used in the vaccine reawakens because an unrelated health problem, like cancer, has compromised their immune systems.

Monday, June 13, 2011

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Published:   June 13, 2011       

Scientists have identified an unexpected factor that may play a significant role in the development of autism: prenatal vitamins.
A new study reports that mothers of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders were significantly less likely than mothers of children without autism to have taken prenatal vitamins three months before conception and in the first month of pregnancy. The finding, published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology, suggests that taking vitamins in this period may help prevent these disorders, reducing the risk by some 40 percent.
Researchers recruited children through a California project, the Childhood Autism Risks From Genetics and Environment Study, or Charge, enrolling 288 children with autism and 144 with autism spectrum disorders, and compared them with 278 children who were developing normally. Blood was drawn for genomic analysis, and mothers were asked about their consumption of vitamins before and during pregnancy.
In mothers and children with gene variants that affect folate metabolism, not taking prenatal vitamins before conception was associated with an up to sevenfold increase in the risk of autism, the researchers found. Prenatal vitamins are rich in folate.
“Taking prenatal vitamin supplements even before conception is a concrete step concerned parents can take,” said Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the study’s senior author and principal investigator of the Charge study.

AJP in Advance. Published May 9, 2011 (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10101532)

                                                                                                                   (Am J Psychiatry Kim et al.; AiA:1–9) 
                                                                                                                                                    Read More...

By APRIL DEMBOSKY                                                                                      Published: November 1, 2010        
 
                                                                                                                 Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

A camera operator observed Carmen and Saul Aguilar during a therapy session with their son Emilio at 7 months old. Emilio showed signs of autism, and his older brother, Diego, received a diagnosis at age 2.

SACRAMENTO — In the three years since her son Diego was given a diagnosis of autism at age 2, Carmen Aguilar has made countless contributions to research on this perplexing disorder. 

ATLANTA NEWS 6:51 a.m. Friday, August 20, 2010

By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Researchers at Georgia Tech hope to create an inexpensive, computerized early warning system for young children who have autism.

The socially-isolating affliction is frightening for parents, but it can be treated. And that treatment can be more effective with early intervention, project members said.

Children, on average, are not screened by an autism expert until age 4, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants be screened at 18 months of age.

"The problem is," said Gregory Abowd, a computer professor at Tech and one of the team leaders, "we don't have any way to effectively do that across the entire population."

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Your Online Source for Credible Health Information

Prevalence of Autism

It is estimated that between 1 in 80 and 1 in 240 with an average of 1 in 110 children in the United States have an ASD. [Read article] 
ASDs are reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, yet are on average 4 to 5 times more likely to occur in boys than in girls.  However, we need more information on some less studied populations and regions around the world. [Read article]
If 4 million children are born in the United States every year, approximately 36,500 children will eventually be diagnosed with an ASD.  Assuming the prevalence rate has been constant over the past two decades, we can estimate that about 730,000 individuals between the ages of 0 to 21 have an ASD.
Studies in Asia, Europe and North America have identified individuals with an ASD with an approximate prevalence of 0.6% to over 1%.