Score one for our side: A tactic used by insurance companies to deny expensive behavioral therapy to autistic children has been deemed illegal by a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, who has found that Kaiser Permanente’s refusal to pay for a child’s autism treatment because the provider was not licensed by the state runs counter to California’s Mental Health Parity Act.
That act requires insurers to cover care for mental and behavioral problems at the same levels they do for physical illnesses. The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica advocacy organization, against …read more

Slate’s Erica Westly takes an interesting look at the increasing incidence of Asperger’s as a legal defense, citing the recent headline case of British computer whiz Gary McKinnon, who hacked into almost 100 U.S. government and NASA computers after becoming obsessed with the United States covering up UFO contact. “Criminal defendants in the United States have been using similar tactics with varying degrees of success in recent years,” Westly writes. “In fact, it’s not all that rare for criminal defendants with Asperger’s to argue for leniency in cases of computer fraud, sexual misconduct, and murder. Three years ago, the defense even made its …read more

ABC News reports that doctors have begun “firing” parents who decline to have thier children vaccinated. One California mom, who’s oldest child has been diagnosed with autism said her doctor said the presence of her and her child was “too much of a liability.” Doctors are apparently feeling more compelled to say “no” back to anti-vaccine parents.
The issue surfaced this at the annual American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in Washington, D.C. Presenter Dr. Gary Marshall said there are some cases when it’s ethical and legal to refuse to continue to see, or treat, a child, especially if parents and the physician will never …read more

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates strongly with autism and which doesn’t involve changes to the DNA sequence itself, a finding that may suggest new approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Researchers found higher-than-usual numbers of gene-regulating molecules called methyl groups in a region of the genome that regulates oxytocin receptor expression in people with autism. Previous studies have shown that giving oxytocin can improve social engagement behavior and it’s being explored as a potential treatment, and although the methylation status of the OXTR gene is not a definitive diagnosis of autism by …read more

I attended the first part of Dr. Tony Atwood’s lecture on Asperger’s and high-functioning autism today in New York, presented by YAI. Though I could only attend the first part of the day-long talk, I’d highly recommend Dr. Atwood as a speaker: clear, humorous, and engaging. In announcing how he had to stop himself for the the morning break, for instance: “The longer you spend living with and working with those with ASDs, the more aspects of an ASD you pick up yourself!”
Atwood, who has worked with Aspies for years and founded a clinic some 17 years ago to work specifically with …read more

“Massachusetts may have the best health care in the country, but it doesn’t cover the treatment for the fastest-growing health threat to children – autism,” writes ex-NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, in the Boston Globe. “More than 500 babies born this year in Massachusetts will soon be diagnosed with autism. What their parents will learn first – what my wife, Laurie, and I have learned from our son Dougie – is that while the hopes and dreams for their child may change, they will also intensify.”
A touchdown statement if I ever heard one. And here’s the extra point from the head the …read more

New genes and genomic regions that might be associated with autism have been identified by an international research team. The researchers identified a single-letter change on chromosome 5 near a gene called semaphorin 5A, which is believed to help guide the growth of neurons and their long progressions, called axons. The activity of this gene appears to be reduced in the brains of people with autism. More is here.

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Today I helped give a presentation in a Queens hospital to young doctors and the subject of how to deliver bad news about a child’s special needs to parents. The illumination factor …read more

The golden spike (or, as Jill says and I wish I’d thought of this, “100 is the new 160″) has unleashed a crop of opinions in the general media on autism’s present and future impact — and, indeed, if the “real” numbers have risen at all.
“Autism is on the rise — or is it?’ wonders Newsweek (”The new data has everyone who cares about autism abuzz. But, as with so many issues connected to the disorder, no one can quite agree on what it means … “). The Los Angeles Times seems have interpreted the new numbers chiefly by averaging the …read more

Imagine if some important number doubled overnight: Your rent, your car payment, your taxes, your salary (or unemployment benefits), your health insurance premiums (or the number of people who think healthcare reform is only common sense). Imagine the impact of doubling.
Well, on Friday the numbers stood at 1 in 160. This morning, the government proclaims, the numbers are actually closer to 1 in 100 children. That’s a spike that’s going to look awfully impressive on some chart in a history book a century (or 160 years) from now.
Greater awareness, broader definitions and diagnoses in younger children may explain some of the increase, …read more

For the first time since we had a chaotically late driver a few years ago, we’ve run into a snag with Alex’s school busing common to the autistic.
The driver says Alex is constantly getting up while the bus is in motion and refuses to behave during transport. One part of us finds this hard to believe: Though Alex is certainly capable of disruptive behavior (our family holiday dinners being People’s Exhibit A), he is and always has been a model traveller. Never a whisper of a complaint from any bus company (never a whisper of a compaint from the airline …read more