There’s a new study by Molly Helt et al. out about recovery from autism in the December Neuropsychology Review. Kev at Left Brain/Right Brain has an overview; here’s the abstract:
Although Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are generally assumed to be lifelong, we review evidence that between 3% and 25% of children reportedly lose their ASD diagnosis and enter the normal range of cognitive, adaptive and social skills. Predictors of recovery include relatively high intelligence, receptive language, verbal and motor imitation, and motor development, but not overall symptom severity. Earlier age of diagnosis and treatment, and a diagnosis of Pervasive …read more

Translating Autism, a blog about autism research by Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, Ph.D., has posted a summary of a recently published study about heavy metal toxicity and detoxification capacity in autism. The study is published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences, and is based on the notion that autistic children have a diminished ability to remove toxins—such as mercury—-from their bodies. In an effort to prove this theory, the researchers looked at urinary porphyrins as a measure of mercury exposure; specifically, they examined “urinary porphyrin metabolites (a proposed measure of heavy metal toxicity) and plasma sulfates (a proposed measure of …read more

As reported today by ABC15-Scripps Howard News Service : More than 135,000 kindergarten students nationwide are attending school without being vaccinated for potentially deadly diseases like measles, mumps and rubella.

In a review of the recently published book, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, Rahul Parikh, a physician who writes the sWell blog for Salon, starts by noting that the hate mail and, indeed, death threats, the book’s author, Dr. Paul Offit, has received are reminiscent of “pro-choice physicians on the front lines of the abortion debate.” Dr. Parikh—-who has also written about …read more

In recognition of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, b5media bloggers on the Health and Wellness Channel are blogging about the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. (For a list of the 12 posts on the 12 steps, check out Healthbolt.) This is Step 10:
Step 10 – Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
I don’t know a lot about the 12 steps; the call to self-scrutiny and to reexamination of oneself stated in Step 10 have been important for me to apply in figuring how to help Charlie. Parents today frequently note how …read more

The National Institute of Mental Health calls off a study on chelation as a treatment for autistic children. Safety concerns are cited and it also needs to be noted that the reasons for using chelation to “treat” autistic children rest on an unproven hypothesis about autism causation, that autistic children have mercury and/or “heavy metals” in their body, from vaccines or something in vaccines or the environment.
Other news:

Move Over, Cupcake
The votes are in for brownies around here.
What It’s Like: Life with Charlie and a Poem (and the VICP)
“Simile” is the title of one of my favorite poems from Line …read more

Back in July, a study on chelation as a treatment for autistic children was put on hold due to safety concerns. Now the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has called off the study, as reported in today’s Associated Press.
The statement says the agency decided the money would be better used testing other potential therapies for autism and related disorders.
The study had been on hold because of safety concerns . A study published last year linked a chemical used in the treatment to lasting brain problems in rats.
Chelation is based on the unproven notion that mercury in vaccines can …read more

In the July 14th Nature is an article about the NIMH chelation study that was put on hold due to safety concerns. NIMH director, Thomas Insel, M.D., says that, due to children being involved, and because the study “carries more than minimal risk and offers no demonstrable benefit to the participants,” it has been referred to the US Department of Health and Human Services panel for ethics approval.
Nature also points out that the very premise of the study rests on an unproven hypothesis about autism being caused by mercury poisoning. While more and more scientific evidence disputes a link between …read more

A study on chelation, a controversial biomedical treatment for autism, has been put on hold, today’s Associated Press reports. Chelation, in which heavy metals are removed from the body, is based on the notion that mercury in vaccines can be linked to autism; an autistic boy, Abubakar Tariq Nadama, died in 2005 after receiving chelation treatment at the office of Dr. Roy Kerry in Pennsylvania. The chelation study was to be funded by the federal government and has been put on hold due to safety concerns, according to Dr. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health. …read more

Main event of the week: Charlie’s last day in elementary school.
And, yes, Tuesday.

In the comments, a link to a Press-Enterprise article about an 11-year-old, Nicholas Dooley, who has autism and possibly another psychiatric disorder.

So Goeth the Autism Epidemic
The June 6th Times (UK) has an article on The autism epidemic commeth, which heralds the publication of a book entitled Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker.
If You Happen to Be Near a TV from 7-9am Tomorrow…
See below.
Trying to Be Pretty Good Neighbors
Are nasty neighbors affecting your home’s value? asks a report today on ABC news.
Telling …read more

Says Hilary Godwin, chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA and the mother of an autistic son in a June 16th LA Times article about the dangers of over-the-counter chelating products:
“Parental anxiety drives people to try anything.”
Anything and everything (including a certain kind of enema), all in the name of detoxifying autistic children’s bodies of supposed excessive heavy metals, toxins, and so forth. Dr. Michael Shannon, chief of emergency medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston and a specialist in lead poisoning, says this about the dangers of over-the-counter—”do it yourself”—chelators:
Chelation is sometimes necessary to treat severe cases of metal poisoning, …read more