10% of autistic children may ‘recover’
Data presented at the International Society for Autism Research meeting in May in Chicago suggests that one in 10 children diagnosed with autism or autism spectrum disorders may ‘recover’. Deborah Fein, the study's lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, said that ‘recovery’ is more likely in children who received a treatment known as ‘applied behavioural analysis’ and got it early.
The researchers looked at the results of three groups aged nine to 18:
• 20 ‘optimal outcome’ children (a phrase Fein prefers to ‘recovered’)
• 15 children with ‘high functioning’ autism
• 23 comparison children developing typically
In the research, Fein and her colleagues looked at such measures as head circumference growth patterns, which have previously been suggested to play a role in the development of autism. They found that the rate of head growth followed by deceleration was greater in the optimal outcome and high-functioning autism groups than in the comparison group. But the head-growth patterns were no different in the optimal outcome and highfunctioning groups.
They found that above average IQ may help the ‘recovered’ group normalise and speculated that the above average IQ may help the recovered children to compensate.
Most of the children who recovered received early (before they were five) applied behavioural analysis treatment, an intensive programme that aims to improve problem behaviours although the researchers emphasise that the fact that a child does not ‘recover’ does not mean that they did not have good care.
Children with autism tend to also have coexisting conditions such as attention problems and anxiety and
these conditions persisted even in the ‘recovered’ children.
Martha Herbert, MD, a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston and a director of the treatment- guided research initiative with the Autism Society of America, says that a 10% recovery rate for those with autism seems plausible; in the past, estimates of ‘recovery’ have ranged from 3% to 25%. Among autism experts, she says, there is a growing consensus that autism is not entirely 'hard-wired’ and that recovery is possible.
via JS
More at http://tinyurl.com/l46wd2
2009年8月6日 星期四
Compulsory MMR jab – a human rights issue?
Compulsory MMR jab – a human rights issue?
A rash of media coverage hit the headlines in the UK at the beginning of July with calls from Sir Sandy
Macara, a former chairman of the British Medical Association, for the MMR vaccination to be made compulsory for children going to school. His call was echoed by some health ministers
who claim that measles is set to reach epidemic levels again given the loss of faith in the MMR vaccine from fears over links to autism – fears that, they say, are now discredited.
According to the Alliance for Natural Health and many other campaigners, this so-call 'discreditation' refers to the current UK General Medical Council case against Dr Andrew Wakefield. Dr Wakefield is one of a team of doctors from the Royal Free Hospital in London who reported specific bowel symptoms in a prospective case series of 12 consecutive vaccinated children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and alleged a possible connection with the MMR vaccination.
The paper was published in the Lancet in 1998 and in the wake of its publication, the doctors faced a massive assault from the media, the vaccine manufacturers, the government, the UK’s General Medical Council and a large clutch of doctors. They were accused of professional misconduct, forced out of their jobs and in March 2004 the GMC announced it was going to instigate an inquiry – which has now been running for 18 months at the taxpayer's expense.
Campaigners’ claims that the right to choose the MMR versus single vaccines for your children is a human rights issue have been given weight by support from health visitors union, Unite. Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, has rejected Sir Sandy’s call saying that they believe that the NHS is about choice and that Sir Sandy's motion is incompatible with that principle. They maintain that there is a direct link between the declining MMR take-up rates and the slimming down of the health visiting service over the last four years.
Said Cheryll Adams of Unite: 'The health visiting service is now so under-resourced that health visitors no longer automatically see families when the child is eight to12 months old, which is the best time to provide advice and information, so that parents can make an informed decision about MMR. Educating parents, not coercion, is the best way forward.’
At present, only 80% of children have had both the MMR immunisations needed to give full protection –
'herd immunity' necessary to keep these diseases at bay is only achieved when that figure reaches 95%.
via JS
More at http://tinyurl.com/kupbau
and at http://tinyurl.com/ngo94g
A rash of media coverage hit the headlines in the UK at the beginning of July with calls from Sir Sandy
Macara, a former chairman of the British Medical Association, for the MMR vaccination to be made compulsory for children going to school. His call was echoed by some health ministers
who claim that measles is set to reach epidemic levels again given the loss of faith in the MMR vaccine from fears over links to autism – fears that, they say, are now discredited.
According to the Alliance for Natural Health and many other campaigners, this so-call 'discreditation' refers to the current UK General Medical Council case against Dr Andrew Wakefield. Dr Wakefield is one of a team of doctors from the Royal Free Hospital in London who reported specific bowel symptoms in a prospective case series of 12 consecutive vaccinated children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and alleged a possible connection with the MMR vaccination.
The paper was published in the Lancet in 1998 and in the wake of its publication, the doctors faced a massive assault from the media, the vaccine manufacturers, the government, the UK’s General Medical Council and a large clutch of doctors. They were accused of professional misconduct, forced out of their jobs and in March 2004 the GMC announced it was going to instigate an inquiry – which has now been running for 18 months at the taxpayer's expense.
Campaigners’ claims that the right to choose the MMR versus single vaccines for your children is a human rights issue have been given weight by support from health visitors union, Unite. Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, has rejected Sir Sandy’s call saying that they believe that the NHS is about choice and that Sir Sandy's motion is incompatible with that principle. They maintain that there is a direct link between the declining MMR take-up rates and the slimming down of the health visiting service over the last four years.
Said Cheryll Adams of Unite: 'The health visiting service is now so under-resourced that health visitors no longer automatically see families when the child is eight to12 months old, which is the best time to provide advice and information, so that parents can make an informed decision about MMR. Educating parents, not coercion, is the best way forward.’
At present, only 80% of children have had both the MMR immunisations needed to give full protection –
'herd immunity' necessary to keep these diseases at bay is only achieved when that figure reaches 95%.
via JS
More at http://tinyurl.com/kupbau
and at http://tinyurl.com/ngo94g
Pesticides and Parkinson’s disease
Pesticides and Parkinson’s disease
Reporting in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, Beate Ritz, Professor of Epidemiology at UCLA and colleagues found that Central Valley residents who lived within 500 metres of fields sprayed between 1974 and 1999 had a 75% increased risk for Parkinson's.
In addition, people who were diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 60 or younger were found to have been at much higher risk because they had been exposed to maneb, paraquat or
both in combination between 1974 and 1989, years when they would have been children, teens or young adults. The results confirmed previous observations from animal studies that exposure
to multiple chemicals may increase the effect of each chemical (which is important as humans are
often exposed to more than one pesticide in the environment) and that the timing of exposure is also important.
The researchers noted that this is the first epidemiological study to provide strong evidence that maneb and paraquat act synergistically to become neurotoxic and strongly increase the
risk of Parkinson's disease in humans. Of particular concern, and consistent with other theories regarding the progression of Parkinson's pathology, is that the data suggests that the critical
window of exposure to toxicants may have occurred years before the onset
of motor symptoms when a diagnosis of Parkinson's is made.
The researchers had enrolled 368 longtime residents diagnosed with Parkinson's and 341 others as a control group.
More at http://tinyurl.com/kkkj5q
Courtesy of PAN UK www.pan-uk.org
Reporting in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, Beate Ritz, Professor of Epidemiology at UCLA and colleagues found that Central Valley residents who lived within 500 metres of fields sprayed between 1974 and 1999 had a 75% increased risk for Parkinson's.
In addition, people who were diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 60 or younger were found to have been at much higher risk because they had been exposed to maneb, paraquat or
both in combination between 1974 and 1989, years when they would have been children, teens or young adults. The results confirmed previous observations from animal studies that exposure
to multiple chemicals may increase the effect of each chemical (which is important as humans are
often exposed to more than one pesticide in the environment) and that the timing of exposure is also important.
The researchers noted that this is the first epidemiological study to provide strong evidence that maneb and paraquat act synergistically to become neurotoxic and strongly increase the
risk of Parkinson's disease in humans. Of particular concern, and consistent with other theories regarding the progression of Parkinson's pathology, is that the data suggests that the critical
window of exposure to toxicants may have occurred years before the onset
of motor symptoms when a diagnosis of Parkinson's is made.
The researchers had enrolled 368 longtime residents diagnosed with Parkinson's and 341 others as a control group.
More at http://tinyurl.com/kkkj5q
Courtesy of PAN UK www.pan-uk.org
2009年7月27日 星期一
A new theory on autism put forward 自閉症新觀點
A new theory on autism put forward
1. April 2009 20:54
Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have
proposed a sweeping new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of
people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning
symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
The central tenet of the theory, published in the March issue of Brain Research
Reviews , is that autism is a developmental disorder caused by impaired
regulation of the locus coeruleus, a bundle of neurons in the brain stem that
processes sensory signals from all areas of the body.
The new theory stems from decades of anecdotal observations that some autistic
children seem to improve when they have a fever, only to regress when the fever
ebbs. A 2007 study in the journal Pediatrics took a more rigorous look at fever
and autism, observing autistic children during and after fever episodes and
comparing their behavior with autistic children who didn't have fevers. This study
documented that autistic children experience behavior changes during fever.
"On a positive note, we are talking about a brain region that is not irrevocably
altered. It gives us hope that, with novel therapies, we will eventually be able to
help people with autism," says theory co-author Mark F. Mehler, M.D., chairman
of neurology and director of the Institute for Brain Disorders and Neural
Regeneration at Einstein.
Autism is a complex developmental disability that affects a person's ability to
communicate and interact with others. It usually appears during the first three
years of life. Autism is called a "spectrum disorder" since it affects individuals
differently and to varying degrees. It is estimated that one in every 150 American
children has some degree of autism.
Einstein researchers contend that scientific evidence directly points to the locus
coeruleus–noradrenergic (LC-NA) system as being involved in autism. "The LCNA
system is the only brain system involved both in producing fever and
controlling behavior," says co-author Dominick P. Purpura, M.D., dean emeritus
and distinguished professor of neuroscience at Einstein.
The locus coeruleus has widespread connections to brain regions that process
sensory information. It secretes most of the brain's noradrenaline, a
neurotransmitter that plays a key role in arousal mechanisms, such as the "fight
or flight" response. It is also involved in a variety of complex behaviors, such as
attentional focusing (the ability to concentrate attention on environmental cues
relevant to the task in hand, or to switch attention from one task to another). Poor
attentional focusing is a defining characteristic of autism.
"What is unique about the locus coeruleus is that it activates almost all higherorder
brain centers that are involved in complex cognitive tasks," says Dr.
Mehler.
Drs. Purpura and Mehler hypothesize that in autism, the LC-NA system is
dysregulated by the interplay of environment, genetic, and epigenetic factors
(chemical substances both within as well as outside the genome that regulate the
expression of genes). They believe that stress plays a central role in
dysregulation of the LC-NA system, especially in the latter stages of prenatal
development when the fetal brain is particularly vulnerable.
As evidence, the researchers point to a 2008 study, published in the Journal of
Autism and Developmental Disorders, that found a higher incidence of autism
among children whose mothers had been exposed to hurricanes and tropical
storms during pregnancy. Maternal exposure to severe storms at mid-gestation
resulted in the highest prevalence of autism.
Drs. Purpura and Mehler believe that, in autistic children, fever stimulates the LCNA
system, temporarily restoring its normal regulatory function. "This could not
happen if autism was caused by a lesion or some structural abnormality of the
brain," says Dr. Purpura.
"This gives us hope that we will eventually be able to do something for people
with autism," he adds.
The researchers do not advocate fever therapy (fever induced by artificial
means), which would be an overly broad, and perhaps even dangerous, remedy.
Instead, they say, the future of autism treatment probably lies in drugs that
selectively target certain types of noradrenergic brain receptors or, more likely, in
epigenetic therapies targeting genes of the LC-NA system.
"If the locus coeruleus is impaired in autism, it is probably because tens or
hundreds, maybe even thousands, of genes are dysregulated in subtle and
complex ways," says Dr. Mehler. "The only way you can reverse this process is
with epigenetic therapies, which, we are beginning to learn, have the ability to
coordinate very large integrated gene networks."
"The message here is one of hope but also one of caution," Dr. Mehler adds.
"You can't take a complex neuropsychiatric disease that has escaped our
understanding for 50 years and in one fell swoop have a therapy that is going to
reverse it — that's folly. On the other hand, we now have clues to the
neurobiology, the genetics, and the epigenetics of autism. To move forward, we
need to invest more money in basic science to look at the genome and the
epigenome in a more focused way."
http://www.aecom.yu.edu/
Souce: http://www.news-medical.net/news/2009/04/01/47775.aspx
Adults with autism isolated and ignored in the UK 成人自閉症
Adults with autism isolated and ignored in the UK
According to a report from the National Autistic Society (NAS), 63% adults with autism in England do not have enough support to meet their needs.
The 'I Exist' report reveals for first time the miserable daily reality many thousands of adults with autism.
Isolated, ignored and unable to access support they require, they are often completely dependent on their families.
At least one in three adults with autism is experiencing severe mental health difficulties due to a lack of support.
No record is kept by 67% of authorities of how many adults with autism there are in their area, and neither the government, local authorities, primary care trusts know how many adults with autism there are England.
This makes it extremely difficult to plan and deliver the services that people with autism need.
The NAS is calling for a range of support services, provided at the right time, to meet the needs of all adults with autism.
For more information about the 'I Exist' campaign and to download copies of the 'I Exist' report, visit www.think-differently.org.uk.
To find autism services and support networks in your area contact the NAS Autism Services Directory at www.autism.org.uk/autism directory.
This is the UK's most comprehensive directory of services and events for people with autism.
For more information about autism in general, contact the NAS at www.nas.org.uk or call the NAS Autism Helpline on: 0845 070 4004 10am–4pm, Monday to Friday, (local rates apply).
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