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Autism Spectrum Disorder

March 30, 2014 by · Comments Off on Autism Spectrum Disorder 

Autism Spectrum Disorder, A comprehensive new U.S. study has found one in every 68 children now falls in the autism spectrum, a shocking 30-per-cent increase since 2012 that Canadian experts say mirrors rising prevalence of autism here.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data on Thursday, calling for an immediate action plan to avert “a pressing health crisis that must be prioritized at the national level.”

Autism Speaks Canada executive director Jill Farber likened the 30 per cent jump to a “public health crisis.”

In 2012, autism affected one in 88 children (one in 54 boys and one in 252 girls) compared with Thursday’s findings of one in 68 (one in 42 boys and 189 girls). The figures reflect the fact that boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism.

Ms. Farber said the prevalence of autism in Canada is in sync with that of the United States, although she added that this country lacks the hard empirical data to prove that.

“We’ve used their prevalence rates up to now because we don’t track it in the same way, whether that’s because we have a less dense population or because we haven’t put the money into the database structure. Public Health Canada has said they plan on doing a prevalence study, but nothing has happened yet,” she said.

“We have no firm numbers on how many adults, children and adolescents have autism spectrum disorder, but we get thousands of calls, e-mails and requests for services, for help and assistance. The one in 68 is an astounding number, but there are other things we should also be alarmed about,” she added.

Research has shown that early intervention can make a huge difference in a child’s development. But children with autism are still being diagnosed at four- to four-and-a-half years old.

“We need to move that needle down to intervene and diagnose earlier,” Ms. Farber said.

Experts say autism can be identified and diagnosed as early as age two.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

February 18, 2012 by · Comments Off on Autism Spectrum Disorder 

Autism Spectrum Disorder, So much interesting research is going on here in Philadelphia. Here’s a study that was just published yesterday suggesting some visible brain differences show up in autistic people as young as six months. I’m collecting a file on human variation and evolution, hoping to write a series of columns that take an evolutionary view of such conditions as autism, ADHD, dyslexia and shyness. Why are we humans so different from one another? Are some of these differences holdovers from earlier eras, when different types of behavior proved advantageous? When people didn’t spent their childhoods forced to sit in chairs and absorb lectures? Or are some of these conditions byproducts of the sheer complexity of the human brain?

Variation drives evolution, and if our environment changed, some of the people who are labelled with various conditions and disorders might thrive better than those deemed “normal.” Does human variation help explain why humans have become such a successful species?

The new study was summarized in a blog post for abcnews. One thing that struck me about this post was the statement that parents haven’t done something wrong to cause autism in their children. Historians of medicine have reminded me that before the vaccine scare, there was something called the “refrigerator mother” hypothesis. Doctors blamed mothers for being too cold to their children. While the vaccine scare is a problem, the refrigerator mother idea caused pain and suffering for families as well. Here’s a piece of the story from the abcnews health blogs:

The study, which tracked MRI images of 92 infants from 6 to 24 months, found that infants who went on to develop autism may have had brain abnormalities visible on MRI at 6 months of age, before the development of clinical symptoms.

The infants studied were already considered at high risk for the condition because their siblings were diagnosed with autism.

Researchers tracked brain changes in infants at 6 months-, 1 year-, and 2 years old. Then, they formally tested for autism using the standard diagnostic test at 2 years old, the typical age when autism is diagnosed.

Twenty-eight infants whose MRI results showed slower brain connections went on to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Previous studies have looked at brain changes in babies as young as 1 year old, but researchers said the new study is the first to track changes in infants as young as 6 months old.

According to Dr. Nancy Minshew, director of the NICHD Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study, the current findings suggest that a child might have autism long before he or she begins to show outward signs.

“Parents and primary care physician determination of onset of autism or ASD in the second or third year of life is not an accurate assessment of onset,” said Minshew. “This adds to the evidence that autism develops on its own, so to speak, and not because parents did something or did not do something to cause autism.”

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