Is a label of "autism" lifelong?

[TheOldSchool]

This was inspired by this post:

Is a label of autism lifelong?...

Children 'may grow out of autism'
16 January 2013 - Some young children accurately diagnosed as autistic lose their symptoms and their diagnosis as they get older, say US researchers.
Quote:
The findings of the National Institutes of Health study of 112 children appears to challenge the widely held belief that autism is a lifelong condition. While not conclusive, the study, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests some children might possibly outgrow autism. But experts urge caution. Much more work is needed to find out what might explain the findings.

Dr Deborah Fein and her team at the University of Connecticut studied 34 children who had been diagnosed with autism in early childhood but went on to function as well as 34 other children in their classes at school. On tests - cognitive and observational, as well as reports from the children's parents and school - they were indistinguishable from their classroom peers. They now showed no sign of problems with language, face recognition, communication or social interaction. For comparison, the researchers also studied another 44 children of the same age, sex and non-verbal IQ level who had had a diagnosis of "high-functioning" autism - meaning they were deemed to be less severely affected by their condition.

It became clear that the children in the optimal outcome group - the ones who no longer had recognisable signs of autism - had had milder social deficits than the high-functioning autism group in early childhood, although they did have other autism symptoms, like repetitive behaviours and communication problems, that were as severe. The researchers went back and checked the accuracy of the children's original diagnosis, but found no reason to suspect that they had been inaccurate.

Label for life?

If you don't like reading long posts please skip ahead to the black, bold part of this.

The official diagnosis of Autism in a simple to understand format: a deficit in the ability to decipher the varied exchanges of human communication and interaction, as well as a deficit in learning efficient means of exacting influence on your environment (among other things but I'm trying to make it super simple here).

Now that's an extremely loose definition but my goal is to explain how autism can be "cured" as is posited by the post that I quoted.

Autism is nothing more than a diagnosis. The goal of every person that works with an individual with autism is for that diagnosis to go away. Doctors diagnose patients all the time. If you have the flu, you get antibiotics. But if a person has autism then what is the medicine?

There is a science to helping individuals with autism learn the necessary skills to afford as normal a life as possible. Success varies but there are infinite methods to improve the life of a person with that diagnosis. So because they're lives are improved does that make them cured?

I would not consider those people as "cured" because there was no disease, just a deficit or lack of sufficient skills. The environment they were in was unable to adapt them to everyday life just as it pretty automatically did with all of us. So suppose someone changed that environment (through the child's school, their therapist, their doctor, etc.) and that child was able to learn the necessary skills to interact with the world however they wanted. I would see them as an individual who no longer meets the criteria for having "autism" rather than "cured."

I'll try to relate this to you all in an example:

My colleague once worked with a 6 year old who had never spoken a single word, ate only junk food and chicken nuggets (food tolerance - a difficult to treat trend amongst people with disabilities), and resorted to tantrums when they wanted something. The child was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder and then Autism. After years of therapy at age 15 they were on their way home with their mother and asked her "Mom, what is autism?" The mom panicked a bit about the answer until the son said, "I think my friend might have it." That's because the child had been taught methods of dealing with their previous deficiencies. Just as all of us have found ways of dealing with our own deficiencies.

That's what I consider "cured." Autism is not a disease it is a label. It just means that these kids require some extra attention and a little bit more patience. Many of us know someone affected by autism. Please be patient and understanding with them.

 

[waltky]

Granny says all ya momma's-to-be remember to take yer folic acid...

Folic Acid in Early Pregnancy Cuts Risk of Autism
February 15, 2013 - Babies born to women who take supplements of the B vitamin folic acid in early pregnancy are significantly less likely to develop autism, a developmental delay characterized by problems with communication and social interaction. The findings of a large Norwegian study reinforce those of other researchers that folic acid supplements are important to a healthy pregnancy.

Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health looked at health data on more than 85,000 children born between 2002 and 2008. The study asked the mothers to describe their food intake and all dietary supplements they took before and during their pregnancies. After the babies were born, investigators followed up with the children through the end of March 2012, looking to see how many developed a form of autism. Research leader Pål Surén and colleagues compared pregnant women who took folic acid supplements to those who did not. “The women who took folic acid supplements in early pregnancy had a substantial reduction in risk of having a child with autism. The reduction was 40 percent,” explained Surén.

Surén says four weeks before and eight weeks after conception appeared to be the critical time for folic acid supplementation to reduce the risk of autism. Investigators found no beneficial effects of folic acid later in pregnancy. They also found no connection between childhood autism and the use of other supplements during pregnancy, and no correlation with maternal intake of folate, the naturally-occuring form of folic acid, through foods. The researchers report a total of 270 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, including 114 with autism and 56 with the milder Asperger’s syndrome.

Autism disorders range from Asperger’s, marked by social awkwardness, to severe involvement in which children are unable to communicate with the outside world. The cause of the syndrome is not known, although several genes have been implicated. Folic acid has positively been linked to development of a protective covering called the neural tube in a fetus. Mothers deficient in folic acid are at risk of giving birth to infants with physical defects in which a portion of their spinal cords or brains are exposed because the neural tube does not fuse completely. This causes a crippling condition called spina bifida.

Ezra Susser, a co-author of the folic acid study, is with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York. “These supplements are already recommended for other reasons. So this increases the reasons why we should recommend them,” Susser added. Dark leafy green vegetables, asparagus, broccoli and citrus fruit are rich sources of folate, the natural form of folic acid. But pregnant women can ensure they are getting enough to support their baby's neurological development by taking a supplement. The study linking folic acid supplements with a reduced risk of autism is published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Source

 

[waltky]

Could There Be A Cure For Autism?...

Could there really be a cure for autism?
26 Feb 2013 - As new research claims some children can outgrow their symptoms, these mums believe intensive therapy has transformed their sons’ behaviour

When Josh Tutin was three years old, he was diagnosed with autism so severe that experts believed it unlikely he would ever go to a *mainstream school. He had tantrum after tantrum, and his mother Renitha feared her little boy was incapable of understanding emotions. Then, Renitha read that playing a musical instrument could help, so she taught Josh the piano when he was four. Renitha also spent hours crawling and climbing with him to ease his coordination problems. Now the Bristol boy is a happy 10-year-old who attends a mainstream school, loves maths, plays the piano and often has a hug and a comforting word for others. His turnaround raised an important question: Had Josh grown out of his condition?

And could that mean the future faced by other children diagnosed with autism is starting to look very different? Over the past year, reports from America have suggested the idea may not be as *far-fetched as it sounds. The latest report, released last month by US psychologists, identified 34 children and young people with *high-functioning autism who appeared to have recovered from the developmental disorder. Tests concluded they no longer suffered autistic symptoms, which make it difficult to communicate and socialise. Families of the 100,000 British people affected by autism will cling on to these US findings as hope for the future. Yet experts in this country warn autism remains a lifelong condition and more work needs to be done to conclude anything different.

Professor Richard Hastings, a professor of psychology at Bangor University, says: “Suggesting this is evidence that children can recover from autism is misleading.” However, Professor Hastings, who is also an advisor to the charity *Ambitious about Autism says the researchers themselves admit there are many unanswered questions *surrounding the findings. “These new studies are interesting, but they don’t refute the idea that autism is a lifelong condition. “You can never say never because we don’t completely understand the nature of autism. "At the moment it is still very unclear why it happens, and until you can be clear about that, it is hard to work out whether ‘recovery’ might be possible,” he says.

More How we are fighting to cure our kids of their autism - Mirror Online

 

[waltky]

Gender difference in autism...

Autism 'affects male and female brains differently'
8 August 2013 > Autism affects male and female brains differently, a study has suggested.

UK experts studied brain scans of 120 men and women, with half of those studied having autism. The differences found in the research, published in journal Brain, show more work is needed to understand how autism affects girls, the scientists say. Experts said girls with the condition could be more stigmatised than boys - and it could be harder for them to be diagnosed at all. Autism affects 1% of the population and is more prevalent in boys, so most research has focused on them. In this study, scientists from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine how autism affects the brain of males and females. Male and female brains differ anyway - tissue volume is greater in males.

'Look-alikes'

The study looked at the difference between the brains of healthy males and those with autism - and then healthy females and those with autism. They found the brains of females with autism "look" more like - but still not the same as - healthy males, when compared with healthy females. But the same kind of difference was not seen in males with autism - so their brains did not show "extreme" male characteristics.

Most autism research involves boys and men

Dr Meng-Chuan Lai, who worked on the study said: "What we have known about autism to date is mainly male-biased. "This research shows that it is possible that the effect of autism manifests differently according to one's gender. "Therefore we should not blindly assume that everything found for males or from male-predominant mixed samples will apply to females." He said future research may need to look at males and females equally to discover both similarities and differences. Dr Lai added: "Lastly, there really needs to be more research and clinical attention toward females 'on the spectrum'."

'Masking'

Carol Povey, Director of The National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, said: "Historically, research on autism has been largely informed by the experiences of men and boys with the condition. "This important study will therefore help our understanding of how the condition differs between genders." She added: "Girls can be more adaptive than boys and can develop strategies that often mask what we traditionally think of as the signs of autism. "This "masking" can lead to a great deal of stress, and many girls go on to develop secondary problems such as anxiety, eating disorders or depression. "It's important that we build on this study and more research is conducted into the way autism manifests in girls and women, so that we can ensure that gender does not remain a barrier to diagnosis and getting the right support."

BBC News - Autism 'affects male and female brains differently'

 

[waltky]

Oxytocin may benefit autistic children with behavioral issues...

Young children with autism may benefit from oxytocin treatment
Oct. 27, 2015 - Oxytocin may be the first drug treatment to effectively improve behavioral issues in autistic children.

Young children with autism in a small study who were treated with the synthetic hormone oxytocin showed improvement in social, emotional and behavioral issues. It is thought to be the first effective drug treatment for social impairments associated with autism.

The potential of oxytocin drug treatments to help children with autism could make other therapy-based treatments more effective, researchers said.​

Behavioral therapy has been shown to help children with autism, however it can be time-consuming and costly. "The potential to use such simple treatments to enhance the longer-term benefits of other behavioural, educational and technology-based therapies is very exciting," said Adam Guastella, an autism researcher at the University of Sydney, in a press release.

Researchers worked with 31 children with autism, giving them either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray twice a day for five weeks. Compared to the placebo, researchers said more parents reported improvements in behavioral issues with children who were given oxytocin. "We used some of the most widely used assessments of social responsiveness for children with autism," Guastella said. "We found that following oxytocin treatment, parents reported their child to be more socially responsive at home." The study is published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Young children with autism may benefit from oxytocin treatment

 

[waltky]

People with autism 'die younger'...

People with autism 'die younger', warns charity
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 - People with autism are dying earlier than the general population, often through epilepsy or suicide, a charity warns.

Citing recent research carried out in Sweden, the charity Autistica described the problem as an "enormous hidden crisis". The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, suggested autistic people die on average 16 years early. The charity now wants to raise £10m for more research into the condition. In the UK it is estimated 1% of the population - or 700,000 people - have autism and it causes difficulties in how they communicate and relate to others.

Epilepsy and suicide

The Swedish study looked at the health records of 27,000 autistic adults and used 2.7 million people as a control sample for the general population. The research, carried out by the Karolinska Institute, found that those with autism and an associated learning disability, died more than 30 years early - with the average age of death being 39. In this group of people, a leading cause of death was epilepsy.

Scientists still cannot exactly explain the link between autism and epilepsy, which is partly why the charity wants to raise the money over the next five years to enable more research. The Swedish study also suggested that people with autism, who were not held back by any intellectual disability, died on average 12 years younger - at 58 years old rather than 70. After heart disease, suicide was the most common cause of death for this group of people.

Past research has suggested that autistic women are more at risk of suicide than men and only half of autistic people who have considered suicide were categorised as depressed - although this latter point may be down to problems with communication in diagnosis. The research, which was published online in November 2015, was carried out by Dr Tatja Hirvikoski, who described her findings as "shocking and disheartening" and she said there was an "urgent need for increased knowledge".

'Shameful'