South Lake Tahoe, CA (PRWEB) July 1, 2008 — Lyme disease may play a role in causing autism according to a recent study published in Medical Hypothesis, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

“The Lyme-Autism Connection” was written by Tami Duncan and Bryan Rosner

A team of five physicians led by Robert Bransfield, M.D., analyzed the two diseases and discovered a connection based on epidemiological findings, symptom similarities, case reports, and laboratory test results.

The Lyme-Induced Autism (LIA) Foundation has paved the way for studies such as this one. Led by Tami Duncan, herself the mother of an autistic child, the LIA Foundation was established in 2006 by a group of parents who suspected the connection but recognized the need for scientific research.
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ScienceDaily (2008-07-24) — Picking up on innuendo and social cues is a central component of engaging in conversation, but people with autism often struggle to determine another person’s intentions in a social interaction. New research sheds light on the neural mechanisms that are responsible for such social difficulties in autism, and on the workings of these social brain mechanisms in all of us.

Newswise — Parents of children with autism are increasingly turning to sensory integration treatment to help their children deal with the disorder, and they’re seeing good results. In 2007, 71 percent of parents who pursued alternatives to traditional treatment used sensory integration methods, and 91 percent found these methods helpful.

A new study from Temple University researchers, presented this month at the American Occupational Therapy Association’s 2008 conference, found that children with autistic spectrum disorders who underwent sensory integration therapy exhibited fewer autistic mannerisms compared to children who received standard treatments. Such mannerisms, including repetitive hand movements or actions, making noises, jumping or having highly restricted interests, often interfere with paying attention and learning.
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The Interactive Autism Network (IAN), a project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute sponsored by Autism Speaks, has released the February 2008 research report.  Parents of children with autism were asked to join the project and voluntarily supply information about their entire family.  As time passes numbers are crunched and research reports are released.  The February 2008 report focused on autism treatments.  Parents were asked how many different treatments their children were receiving at a given time.  The results from the survey were astounding.  Some children were only receiving one type of intervention while another parent reported that her child was receiving 56 different treatments…at the same time.  The numbers seemed to peak at five simultaneous treatments.

The top five treatments were speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavior analysis (ABA), social skills groups, and the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).  The survey then broke down the treatments into types of treatment with prescription medications being the most popular.  The report goes on to discuss the lengths that parents have gone through in order to receive adequate services with 5% reporting a move to a new state and 18% either had one parent quit a job or reduce hours in order to meet the child’s therapy schedules.   

Read the entire report at Ian Research Report #5 - February 2008.

St. Anthony’s School in Northvale, New Jersey which has an unusually high percentage of teachers giving birth to autistic children, will not receive the $50,000 in funding needed to look at this increased rate of autism.  From an article posted on NorthJersey.com

St. Anthony’s has housed a Northern Valley District program for children diagnosed with autism and other disorders for the last 30 years. The Walnut Street building is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

According to a WCBStv.com report, the first study done to look at the rates of autism and other developmental concerns that children of St. Anthony’s staff face concluded that of the

24 current or former school employees who had children either while they worked at the school or since then. Their 42 offspring included 24 with developmental disorders — 10 with autism.

The school’s air quality has been tested and the classes have been moved from the main building but nothing conclusive has been determined.  This increased rate of autism spectrum disorders has given some boost to the environmental factors hypothesis that researchers are looking at when helping to determine the causes of autism.

Sources:

NorthJersey.com

WCBStv.com

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has published the results of a study looking into gene research as it may pertain to autistic savants.  The article, published in the February 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, explains that “mice lacking a certain brain protein learn some tasks better but also forget faster.”  This research is promising with regards to explaining why autistic savants function as they do. 

“These opposite effects on different types of learning are reminiscent of the mixed features of autistic patients, who may be disabled in some cognitive areas but show enhanced abilities in others,” said Albert Y. Hung, a postdoctoral associate at the Picower Institute, staff neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the study. “The superior learning ability of these mutant mice in a specific realm is reminiscent of human autistic savants.”

Autistic savants usually have an unusually exceptional talent in a specific area - art, music, and mathematics are a few examples of areas in which this talent may occur.  The lead character from the film “Rain Man” was an autistic savant. 

Source:  MIT

The University of California at Davis’ M.I.N.D. Institute has just published the results of a study looking into the maternal immune system as it relates to autism, most notably the regressive type of autism.  In a news release, the M.I.N.D. Institute announced that the complete findings will be published in the March 2008 issue of Neurotoxicology.

“Antibodies in the blood of mothers of children with autism bind to fetal brain cells, potentially interrupting healthy brain development. The study authors also found that the reaction was most common in mothers of children with the regressive form of autism…”

This unique study gives scientists and parents hope that a definitive cause may be determined for this type of autism.  Regressive autism occurs after a period of normal development - children will lose speech and language skills, toileting abilities, etc; some parents and advocacy groups consider regressive autism the most catastrophic to families.

Source:  UC Davis News Release

ScienceDaily (2008-02-10) — Contrary to popular notions, people at the high end of the autism spectrum disorder continuum suffer most from an inability to model “self” rather than impaired ability to respond to others, according to a novel research study. This inability to model “self” can disrupt an individual’s ability to understand the world as a whole, according to researchers. … > read full article

Posted with permission from Greg Chivers.

I’m a documentary maker and I’m doing some reasearch for a series of films for the British broadcaster Channel 4.

The films are about people overcoming personal obstacles to learn to drive and one of the issues we’re looking at is Asperger’s and
autistic spectrum disorders.

I’m very keen to get in touch with parents (Specifically British families) who have run into problems with driving tuition or who are
keen for their kids to start learning.

I’d really appreciate it if anyone interested in talking to me about their/ their kids thoughts/experiences of learning to drive could
contact me at the e mail address below.

That’s gregchivers@fireflyproductions.tv

Many Thanks

Greg Chivers
Producer/Director
Firefly Film and Television Productions Ltd
gregchivers@fireflyproductions.tv
W: www.fireflyproductions.tv

A February 8, 2008 press release by Vanderbilt University confirms that melatonin can help individuals with an autism spectrum disorder that also have problems with sleep.  Melatonin is a natural supplement; it is believed that people on the autism spectrum are deficient in melatonin.  Supplementing melatonin is thought to induce a more normal and restful sleep pattern.

The Vanderbilt study had 107 participants; 85% of the participants reported improved sleep or completely resolved sleep issues.  According to the news release:

“Although prospective trials will be needed to determine if melatonin is an effective sleep aid in this population, this study does support that it may be a reasonable treatment option in these children when administered under the care of a physician and combined with behavioral therapies for sleep.”

Autism Speaks and the Dana Foundation have pledged $100,000 towards a research study looking at the melatonin solution further. 

Source:  Vanderbilt News Service