I have come across two studies about the causes of Autism in CA [as in California (US), not as in Canada] that are worthy of note. First, there’s a provactive story about an epidemiological study of the relationship between insecticides sprayed on agricultural fields and the incidence of Autism in CA. Second, there’s a study about increases in the identification of Autism in CA showing that much of the increase can be explained by changes in diagnostic labelling.
Continue reading ‘CA Autism data’
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
In the fall of 2006 Scott Kollins, Laurence Greenhilll, James Swanson and a host of colleagues described the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS; funded by the US National Institute of Mental Heath or NIMH) in one of a series of articles in the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. In other articles, the research team presented the outcomes of the study: Ratings of ADHD symptoms were lower among children who received doses of between 2.5 and 7.5 mgs of Methylphenidate three times a day and children taking the medication grew more slowly than expected.
Continue reading ‘Pre-school ADHD’
Caution: Irreverant humor ahead.
The Onion, which publishes (sometimes scatological or profane) humor about nearly anything, has a parody of the person-in-the-street poll under the headline “202 Chemicals Linked To ADHD, Autism.”
Sphere: Related Content
NECTAC site
The US Deparment of Education funds the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and NECTAC provides some resources that are of value to those of us concerned about children and youths with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. In particular, see their pages discussing
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Early Childhood Mental Health, Social-Emotional Development, and Challenging Behaviors
or the entire list of topics (scroll to page bottom)
Sphere: Related ContentOver at Respectful Insolence Orac has a worth-a-read post about a law suit arising from the use of chelation as a therapy for Autism. Chelation, in this sense, is a process in which a compound that binds to metal atoms is injected into a person in hopes of extracting those metals from the person’s body. Some people who believe that mercury causes Autism advocate the use of chelation to remove mercury from individuals who have Autism. A couple of years ago I pointed to this case in an entry here at EBD Blog. There was an extended series of comments in which I described the evidence about chelation. Orac, who harbors an opinion of similar verticality as mine—which is to say very low—about chelating as therapy for Autism, comments on the suit brought against a doctor who treated a boy by chelation and during the therapy the boy died.
Continue reading ‘Orac revisits chelation story’
Multisystemic Therapy, on which I’ve reported previously, received another boost recently. Over on Social Programs that Work, a new study was added to the corpus of studies supporting the efficacy of Multisystemic Therapy. The new study by Jane Timmons-Mitchell and colleagues extends the literature about the value of this method for addressing Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
Continue reading ‘MST redux’
Latest Comments
RSS