Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome

Researchers in Canada and around the world are attempting to develop a test for autism for infants because early treatment is critical for those with ASD. Research presented by Mel Rutherford, associate professor of psychology in the faculty of science at McMaster at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research in London, indicates that […]

According to research published in the May 15, 2008 issue of Biological Psychiatry,  “individuals with autism who exhibit repetitive behavior show reduced activity in brain regions normally responsible for attention and executive function,  the processes that help organize our actions and behaviors, researchers at Hofstra, Duke, and the University of North Carolina report in the […]

Oxytocin has been tested on adults with autism and it has been found to “improve their ability to recognise emotion in people’s voices and the effects of just one injection last for a fortnight.” This chemical is produced during sex and childbirth could help treat autism, depression and other personality disorders. Oxytocin is thought to […]

Pregnant women who bathe their animals might need to read animal shampoo labels. Pet shampoos with pyrethrins have been correlated to an increased risk in ASD when women used these products on pets during the months of their pregnancy. According to Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto, from the University of California, “expectant mothers who used the treatment […]

Researchers are beginning a new research study and will look at 200 infants with older autistic siblings to “seek patterns of early brain development that predict whether they will also develop the condition.”
The researchers are attempting to “identify criteria that can be used to assess very young children’s risk of autism long before its symptoms […]

Affiliative behaviors are touching and hugging that tend to strengthen social bonds that tends to be missing or decreased from people who have received an autism diagnosis.  On May 15th, Biological Psychiatry is publishing an article that reports new findings on genetic bases of these behaviors.
Yale University researchers extensively investigated a large sample of autistic […]

In an attempt to understand the genetic factors behind ASD, researchers from the Montreal Children’s Hospital is participating in a major international study and needs 200 families who have one child four years or older with an autism diagnosis. This study will also involve a dozen schools in the United States. Dr. Eric Fombonne, the […]

The international collaboration with North, South and Central America will help raise awareness and develop research and screening for early diagnosis. Autism Speaks is the world’s largest autism advocacy organization.

The Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis has announced that for the first time the number of adults with autism will be counted in order to form a national strategy. The difficulty with performing this count will be finding those that either aren’t diagnosed or were misdiagnosed in order to get an accurate count.
“The group has […]

A new study, “Parental psychiatric disorders associated with autism spectrum disorders in the offspring,” which appears in the May 5, 2008, issue of the journal Pediatrics has found that “parents of children with autism were roughly twice as likely to have been hospitalized for a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, than parents of other children.” […]