MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'autism treatment'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:54:03 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4203146&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fhardest-behavioral-intervention.html Our Husky mix loves to play hide and seek. She stalks the gate, bolts through an opening, and runs with joy. She races across the neighborhood then hides for the seek. She cannot be seen, she is a natural predator. She'll do this for an hour or so, waiting for us to walk nearby then bolting past us.  Eventually she's sated, and she comes to us. Until recently she got a treat on the return, because our expensive experts told us that's what we needed to do.Running, playing with the pack, eating the treat. Doesn't get better than that. We spent more money than I care to think about on this problem, consulting with the best experts. None of the expert advice worked.Kind of like with our eldest. Almost everything that's worked with him we invented.Lately, we've been trying the hardest behavior... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4203146 Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:21:00 +0100 4203146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3807385&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Ftreating-autistic-symptoms-with.html Oxytocin plays some roles in human social behavior and empathy. Back in 2005 I wrote about the possibility of using this in autism treatment.Alas, five years later the studies are still pretty modest -- Promoting social behavior with oxytocin in high-fu... [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010] Since the drug is off-patent, there may not be enough money to motivate research and production. Frustrating. We need better treatments ... (Source: Be the Best You can Be) Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3807385 Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:26:00 +0100 3807385 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3482868&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fsuspect-with-little-evidence-action-of.html Another in a series of things I suspect but cannot prove ...I suspect that the actions of psychiatric meds on injured brains cannot be predicted.If this were true, it would not be surprising. It's hard to predict how psych meds affect even intact brains. In the injured brains of autism, mental retardation, and (presumably) schizophrenia we expect to find unusual neurotransmitter distributions, injured connections with recovery bypass routes, and areas of atypically high and low activity corresponding to injury and compensation.If this were true, it would not mean we should avoid these meds. It would mean that we should look for unexpected side-effects, and perhaps be cautious about how we interpret response and failure. It would also mean that medications might be unexpectedly effective in... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3482868 Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:19:00 +0100 3482868 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283501&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fbehavior-motivation-text-message.html One of my charges combines substantial cognitive and psychological disabilities with a profound insensitivity to common motivators. Yes, this is challenging. On the one hand, he has substantial limits. In a modern post-industrial society, he is profoundly disabled. In this he has a lot of company – in our emerging world many neurotypical males with an IQ below 120 have unknowingly joining the world of the effectively disabled. On the other hand, he often performs far below his maximal abilities. Sometimes that’s because his peak performance is very dependent on environmental factors such as medications, time of day, sleep reserves and satiety. Quite often, though, it’s because he doesn’t respond well to any behavioral motivators, including extinction, operant methods/positive reinf... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283501 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:34:00 +0100 3283501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3083025&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fwealth-and-med-choice-antipsychotics.html Interesting results, annoyingly inflammatory interpretation ...Children on Medicaid Found More Likely to Get Antipsychotics - NYTimes.comNew federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows.Those findings, by a team from Rutgers and Columbia, are almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them — but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control p... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3083025 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:59:00 +0100 3083025 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2477578&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fearly-intensive-intervention-in-autism.html In the past six months I've been repeatedly reading about the immense value of intensive early intervention in the outcome of children with cognitive disorders and autism.This surprised me. I follow the literature from a distance, and I don't remember a landmark study that defined the clinically significant (rather than statistically significant) benefits of intense early intervention. I especially don't remember a study describing the kind of early intervention.I figured I'd missed something, so I did a quick review and found these studies ...One-year follow-up of the outcome of a randomized ...[Child Care Health Dev. 2009]How can early intensive training help a genetic disorder?Cochrane review of parent-mediated early intervention (2003)Behavioural and developmental interventions for aut... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2477578 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:11:00 +0100 2477578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2375926&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fsalon-autism-is-not-disorder.html Salon has an article on the autism is not a disorder movement, sometimes called the “neurodiversity” movement. I don’t like to surrender the term neurodiversity, so I’ll call this the “autism is ok” movement. We’ve been through this sort of thing a few times. Famously, some deaf people resent the use of nerve implants that diminish the appeal of sign language. On another front lesbians and gay men successfully transformed same gender sexual preference from a disease to a trait. These examples are well known, but there’s a third example that’s been forgotten. In the 1970s it was a fad for a while to consider schizophrenia to be just another worldview; and that the disease was an biased social construction. That idea was, how shall I say, bull poop. Reality is a lot messier... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2375926 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:34:00 +0100 2375926 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348534&cid=t_194185_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-magic-of-equine-facilitated-therapy%2F The New York Times published a fascinating article last week about one young family’s success using an unorthodox combination of equine (horse)-assisted therapy and Mongolian shamanism to ease their autistic son’s behavioral difficulties: When Rupert Isaacson decided to take his autistic son, Rowan, on a trip to Mongolia to ride horses and seek the help of shamans two years ago, he had a gut instinct that the adventure would have a healing effect on the boy. Mr. Isaacson’s instinct was rewarded after the trip, when some of Rowan’s worst behavioral issues, including wild temper tantrums, all but disappeared. …“The Horse Boy” traces Rowan’s early difficulties with “demonic” tantrums, speech delays and incontinence. The only thing that seemed to help, Mr. Isaacson disc... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348534 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:24:32 +0100 2348534 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2324263&cid=t_194185_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F-CVIgyamo38%2F From the e-letter Spectrum parent NYC at spectrumparentNYC@yahoogroups.com: “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.” Image: FreeFoto.com “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 article adds how the new theory stems from “decades of anecdotal observations that some autistic children seem to imp... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2324263 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:18:02 +0100 2324263 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2263880&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fhyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-sounds-crazy.html I really don't believe these results ...Can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help autistic kids?: Scientific American Blog... New research in today's BMC Pediatrics may give the therapy more credibility as a treatment for autism. The randomized, double-blind controlled study of 62 children found that those who received 40 hours of treatment over a month were less irritable, more responsive when people spoke to them, made more eye contact and were more sociable than kids who didn’t receive it. They were also less sensitive to noise (some autistic children experience a kind of sensory overload from loud sounds and background noise). The most improvement was observed in kids older than five (the study included children ages two to seven) who had milder autism...They have no idea why it might work.... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2263880 Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:36:00 +0100 2263880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2131330&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F01%2Fautism-society-of-america-has-lost-our.html The ASA has turned from the best available science. There are no roads on the trackless wasteland they’re traveling now (emphases mine) … Autism Society of America: research_envirohealth_vaccines Individuals living with autism need help today. There is a clear and present need for the government, scientific, medical and autism communities to probe further into all possible environmental causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in a fair, unbiased and thorough way, particularly because findings may help us approach treatment and prevention more effectively. Research needs include, but are not limited to, research into the causal or contributory relationship to autism that may be attributed to thimerosal containing vaccines (TCV’s), the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) inoculation and/o... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2131330 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:20:00 +0100 2131330 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2035631&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F12%2Fimproving-working-memory-in-low-iq.html Working memory, sometimes called short-term memory, is currently thought to be closely related to IQ test results (for example) and perhaps to the cognitive performance that IQ tests try to measure.It's also generally assumed that IQ cannot be improved, that individual capacity is determined almost entirely by genetics, intrauterine life, and perhaps the first few months of postnatal life. [1]. On the other hand, there's some evidence that working memory can be improved by training, though we don't know if the training effects persist.That's roughly where the published science seems to be, but we're always free to draw some speculative (ok, breathtaking) inferences.Wild speculation number one is that for most professionals under 50 it's not worth investing a lot of effort into training or ... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2035631 Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:48:00 +0100 2035631 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1833201&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F09%2Fcontrolling-nerve-cell-connectivity.html A day or two ago my post on Fragile X and autism research included a discussion of a general theme in current autism research ...... Bear and other scientists have also identified several drugs that seem to correct the problem. The drugs don't replace the missing brakes in the brain. Instead, they limit acceleration by reducing the activity of a group of receptors on brain cells known as mGluR5 receptors.The drugs have reversed most of the effects of Fragile X in mice. They are now being tried in humans. And at least one small study found that a single dose of a drug had an effect....The idea is that neuronal connectivity is a delicate, dynamic, balance. Too much connectivity, or too little, can both prevent cognition from working correctly.So now there's research on modulating neuronal in... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1833201 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:31:00 +0100 1833201 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1825684&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F09%2Fnpr-series-on-autism-hope-for-fragile-x.html Public radio has been running a series on cognitive disorders. You can read summaries and listen to audio on the npr web site. I assembled this list by visiting a few and checking out related links. It covers most of the programs over the past two years, the more recent ones are first. Drugs Hint At Potential Reversal Of Autism (see below) An Autistic Student's Journey To College Confronting 'That Autism Thing' Autism: Helping Children Connect How To Avoid Being Bankrupted By Autism Why Can't Doctors Diagnose Autism? Autism Chronicles: Single With An Autistic Child Finding Support For Autism Autistic and Proud: A Movement Takes Hold Autism: The Unlikely New Campaign Issue Pediatrician: What Parents Should Know About Autism A Mother Inspired, Not Defeated, by Autism ... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1825684 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:26:00 +0100 1825684 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1637788&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F07%2Fautism-genes-that-control-early.html On the one hand, this article annoyed me. It demonstrates the usual confusion between association and causation, and it extrapolates from an exotic genetic disorder to the much larger group of children labeled as "autistic". The reasoning errors, incidentally are not the journalist's. They come from the researchers. Researchers are as prone to this fallacy as anyone else. On the other hand, it has some interesting hints. So I'll delete the worst parts, and focus on the interesting hints. Autism Genes That Control Early Learning: Scientific American A new genetic analysis of large, inbred Middle Eastern families... pinpointed six new genes that may contribute to autism .... They report in Science that all of the linked genes are involved in forming new and stronger connections, called sy... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1637788 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:47:00 +0100 1637788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1625630&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F07%2Fguanfacine-for-adhd-in-children-with.html Guanfacine in Children with Autism and/or Intellec...[J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2008] is basically reassuring. Guanfacine substantially improves ADHD behaviors in children with autism and similar cognitive disorders. It doesn't have other behavior score benefits. Side-effects were as expected.I have a standing PubMed search on Guanfacine because it's a long used medication that was recently found to be an "alpha 2A adrenoceptor". That's making it the subject of extensive research, such as:changes in neuronal connectivityextended release works well in children and adolescentsstrengthening working memory networks (?)better prefrontal cortical regulation of behavior in aging animals (?)Guanfacine (Tenex) is not FDA approved for use in ADHD, but the recent crop of articles expect approval shortly. ... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1625630 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:43:00 +0100 1625630 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1369119&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F04%2Fchanging-behavior-in-children-kazdin.html I spent challenging years learning what Kazdin more or less gives away in a few paragraphs plugging his book (good Amazon ratings so far).Here's Kazdin's summary in Slate ...How to really change your kid's behavior. - By Alan E. Kazdin - Slate Magazine... You begin by deciding what you want the child to do, the positive opposite of whatever behavior you want to stop. The best way to get rid of unwanted behavior is to train a desirable one to replace it. So turn "I want him to stop having tantrums" into "I want him to stay calm and not to raise his voice when I say no to him."Then you tell the child exactly what you would like him to do. Don't confuse improving his behavior with improving his moral understanding; just make clear what behavior you're looking for and when it's appropriate, an... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1369119 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:06:00 +0100 1369119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1332502&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fguanfacine-and-lessons-about-off-label.html Guanfacine, marketed as Tenex, was once used to treat hypertension. These days it's also used, off-label, for the management of behavioral disorders in children. Very off-label. You won't find this mentioned in most drug references. You also won't find mention that guanfacine alters the course of neuronal development in mice, or that Guanfacine ... Improve Paired Associates Learning, but not Delayed Matching to Sample, in Humans: Neuropsychopharmacology (1999) 20 119-130.10.1038/sj.npp.1395238... ... The present study compares the effects of two alpha2-agonists, clonidine (0.5, 2, and 5 g/kg, PO) and guanfacine (7 and 29 g/kg, PO) in young healthy volunteers on their performance in visual paired associates learning (PAL) and delayed matching to sample (DMTS) visual short-term recognit... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1332502 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:08:00 +0100 1332502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1268407&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F02%2Fmedications-for-childhood-behavioral.html In this study we have investigated how agonists of alpha2 adrenoceptors affect length and density of dendritic spines in cultured cortical neurones from C57/B6 mice. A twenty-four hour incubation of 14 day old cultured neurones with UK 14304, an alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist, resulted in a significant increase in the average length and density of dendritic spines. Furthermore, incubation of neurones with the selective alpha2A agonist guanfacine resulted in 1.2-fold increase in spine length and 1.8-fold increase in spine density. These effects were blocked by RX 821002 and BRL 44408, alpha2- and alpha2A-adrenoceptor antagonists, respectively. The observed changes in the density and length of dendritic spines were correlated with increased expression of spinophilin, a key cytoskeletal protein ... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1268407 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:25:00 +0100 1268407 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1265146&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F02%2Fhow-do-you-manage-broken-brain-we-don.html How do you manage a broken brain? What do you do when some skills are at the 75th percentile, and others at the 2nd percentile? Much harder -- when some skills are at the 4th percentile, and others below the 1st percentile? Do you create a profile of all the strengths and weaknesses, a visual representation to analyze and evaluate? An MRI of the mind? Do we create programs to strengthen the weakest areas, or do we leverage the stronger domains? Or perhaps the middle range? Can two or three areas of strength be combined to help an area of weakness? What role might cognition-medications have? What role do psychostimulants have? How do we measure progress? How do we know when to change direction? How do we intervene in infancy, when surgeons can remove half the brain and a child can still go ... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1265146 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:13:00 +0100 1265146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1131013&cid=t_194185_87_f&fid=34925&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestyoucanbe.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F01%2Ftreating-impulsive-aggression-huge.html Impulsive and irritable aggression is a big issue in low IQ adults and children. Risperdal, in particular, has been heavily prescribed for this problem over the past ten years.One study in adults suggests it doesn't really work; but note that it's approved in the US for children with autism -- it wasn't studied in that group. (The journalists language, btw, implies it's often used for mere ADHD alone; that's not true.)The amazing part of this study, was the placebo effect.Drugs Offer No Benefit in Curbing Aggression, Study Finds - New York TimesThe drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than placebos for most patients and may be less so, researchers report....In recent years, many doctors have begun to use the so-called... Be the Best You can Be blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1131013 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:27:00 +0100 1131013