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Decenmber 3, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
New Executive Director Named at M.I.N.D. Institute
(Abstracts)
·
Autistic Spectrum Disorders In Preschool Children
·
Compare Sensory Profile Scores Kids With & Without
ASD
·
Bringing Up Bashful Baby. Devel. Pathways To Social
Phobia
·
Sharing Laughter: The Humour Of Pre-School Kids With
Down
·
Essential Fatty Acids In Visual And Brain Development
·
Autism on NY Cable
New Executive Director Named at M.I.N.D. Institute http://www.northernlight.com/arun?sacl=uvm43wyhw5twa&sastdt=200111290027
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Address ends here.
Ascribe News Via Comtex - Robert Hendren, an expert in neurodevelopmental
psychiatric disorders in children, such as autism and impulse control
disorders, and in psychotropic medications used for these disorders, has joined
the University of California, Davis M.I.N.D. Institute as executive director.
He is also a professor and chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the UC
Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.
A native of Boise, Idaho, Hendren was professor and
director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School and the Behavioral Research and Training Institute at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) before coming to UC Davis.
As executive director of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical
Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute, Hendren provides
leadership to the interdisciplinary organization that studies and treats
autism. The institute was envisioned in 1997 by four Sacramento fathers of
children with autism and launched by UC Davis Health System in 1998. In
addition to autism, the institute also studies and treats fragile X syndrome,
dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and other
neurodevelopmental disorders.
Hendren’s current research is aimed at demonstrating the
diagnostic and treatment matching utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology
in developing biomarkers for neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders first
evident in children and adolescents who are known to have a biologically based
brain component, such as autism, Asperger’s syndrome and bipolar disorder.
Hendren has written more than 60 original papers and three
books in the field of psychiatry. His most recent book is “Disruptive Behavior Disorders
in Children and Adolescents,” published in 1999 by American Psychiatric Press
Inc. Hendren is a fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association and serves on many national
committees. He is board certified in general as well as child and adolescent
psychiatry.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the
University of Utah, Hendren received his medical degree from Kirksville College
of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO. He completed his residency in general
psychiatry at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, MN, and his
child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. He
was director of medical student education at the George Washington University
School of Medicine until 1986 and was the director of child and adolescent
psychiatry and medical director of the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital at the
University of New Mexico before moving to New Jersey in January 1996. At UMDNJ,
he also served as the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the New
Jersey Medical School.
UC Davis Health System is an organization of the UC Davis
School of Medicine, its affiliated teaching hospital, UC Davis Medical Center
and its physician group, UC Davis Medical Group.
* * *
Autistic Spectrum Disorders In Preschool Children.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11723598&dopt=Abstract < -- address ends here.
Objective: To review existing data on early signs of
autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and on how these disorders can be
distinguished from other atypical patterns of development, and to describe a
developmental surveillance approach that family physicians can use to ensure
that children with these diagnoses are detected as early as possible.
Quality Of Evidence: MEDLINE was searched from January
1966 to July 2000 using the MeSH terms autistic disorder/diagnosis AND
diagnosis, differential AND (infant OR child, preschool). Articles were
selected based on relevance to developmental surveillance in primary care and
on experimental design, with emphasis on prospective studies with systematic measurement
procedures using up-to-date diagnostic criteria.
Main Message: Autistic spectrum disorders are characterized
by impairments in social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication, and
by preferences for repetitive interests and behaviours. Early signs that distinguish
ASD from other atypical patterns of development include poor use of eye gaze,
lack of gestures to direct other people’s attention (particularly to show
things of interest), diminished social responsiveness, and lack of
age-appropriate play with toys (especially imaginative use of toys).
Careful attention to parents’ concerns and specific
inquiry into and observation of how children interact, communicate, and play
will help ensure that early signs are detected during regular health
maintenance visits.
Conclusion: Family physicians have an important role in early
identification of children with ASD. Early diagnosis of these disorders is essential
to ensure timely access to interventions known to improve outcomes for these
children.
PMID: 11723598 [PubMed - in process]
* * *
Comparison of Sensory Profile Scores Kids With And Without
ASD Comparison of Sensory Profile scores of young children with and without autism
spectrum disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11723986&dopt=Abstract < -- address ends here.
Watling RL, Deitz J, White O. Division of Occupational
Therapy, Department
of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Box
356490, Seattle,
Washington 98195, USA. rwatling@u.wasington.edu
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe the sensory-based
behaviors of young children with autism as reported by their parents on the
Sensory Profile. Factor scores of children with autism were compared with those
of children without autism.
Method: The Sensory Profile questionnaire was completed by
parents of 40 children with autism 3 through 6 years of age and parents of 40
children without autism 3 through 6 years of age.
Results: The performance of children with autism was significantly
different from that of children without autism on 8 of 10 factors. Factors where
differences were found included Sensory Seeking, Emotionally Reactive, Low
Endurance/Tone, Oral Sensitivity, Inattention/Distractibility, Poor Registration,
Fine Motor/Perceptual, and Other.
Conclusion: Findings from the study suggest that young
children with autism have deficits in a variety of sensory processing abilities
as measured by the Sensory Profile. Further research is needed to replicate these
findings, to examine the possibility of subgroups on the basis of sensory
processing, and to contrast the sensory processing abilities of children with
other disabilities to those of children with autism.
PMID: 11723986 [PubMed - in process]
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* * *
Bringing Up Bashful Baby. Devel. Pathways To Social Phobia
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11723626&dopt=Abstract < -- address ends here.
Stein MB, Chavira DA, Jang KL. Department of Psychiatry,
University of
California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA. mstein@ucsd.edu
Shyness is a risk factor for, or an early manifestation
of, more enduring problems with social anxiety. But the majority of shy
children do not develop social phobia, and factors that further increase risk
are poorly understood, underscoring the complexity of this relationship.
Studies uniformly show that social phobia (particularly
the generalized subtype) runs in families, and twin studies suggest that a moderate
component of this familial tendency is genetic in origin. Understanding the genetic etiology of other
neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by abnormal social interest, social
communication (e.g., autism), or both may prove informative for social phobia.
The contribution of unique experiences to the development
of social phobia is clear from genetic studies, but studies to date have failed
to elucidate what kinds of experiences might be involved. Given patient reports
that socially traumatic conditioning experiences have often occurred, detailed
evaluation of these kinds of experiences in monozygotic twins discordant for
social phobia would be a particularly informative research strategy.
Nongenetic familial factors probably have more limited
effects on the development of social phobia, although the impact of parental
modeling of, and acquiescence to, childhood social fears deserves to be further
investigated. These factors may be particularly salient for the expression of
social phobia in children whose genes render them susceptible.
If so, it should be possible to design early interventions
to prevent the progression from phobia proneness (e.g., designated on the basis
of family history) to phobic disorder.
PMID: 11723626 [PubMed - in process]
* * *
Sharing Laughter: The Humour Of Pre-School Kids With Down
Syn.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11721537&dopt=Abstract < -- address ends here.
Reddy V, Williams E, Vaughan A. Department of Psychology, University of
Portsmouth, U.K. vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk
Humour and laughter have often been portrayed as
fundamentally cultural and social phenomena. They can be used to tell us about
children’s ability to engage socially and to understand others, but have rarely
been explored for this purpose. The present paper summarises the results of a study
of simple forms of humour in children with Down syndrome and with autism, two
groups which are reported to differ in their sociality and interpersonal
understanding.
Sixteen children with Down syndrome and 19 children with
autism, matched on non-verbal mental age, participated in a cross-sectional
study. Parental reports and video-tapes
of naturalistic interaction between parents and children were analysed to show
that although there were no overall differences in the presence or frequency of
child or parent laughter between the two groups, there were differences in what
sorts of events were more likely to prompt child laughter, the extent to which
child laughter was shared, and how the children responded to others’ laughter.
The children with Down syndrome were more likely than the
children with autism to laugh at funny faces and socially inappropriate acts
and less likely to laugh in strange or inexplicable situations, and more likely
to laugh at shared events. They also responded to others’ laughter with attention
or smiles more, and tried to re-elicit it through acts of clowning.
Children with Down syndrome are thus active participants
in humour and laughter, sharing it at both an emotional and a cultural level.
PMID: 11721537 [PubMed - in process]
* * *
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11724460&dopt=Abstract
Uauy R, Hoffman DR, Peirano P, Birch DG, Birch EE. Institute of Nutrition
and Food Technology (INTA), University of Chile, Santiago,
Chile.
Essential fatty acids are structural components of all
tissues and are indispensable for cell membrane synthesis; the brain, retina
and other neural tissues are particularly rich in long-chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids (LC-PUFA). These fatty acids serve as specific precursors for eicosanoids,
which regulate numerous cell and organ functions. Recent human studies support
the essential nature of n-3 fatty acids in addition to the well-established
role of n-6 essential fatty acids in humans, particularly in early life.
The main findings are that light sensitivity of retinal
rod photoreceptors is significantly reduced in newborns with n-3 fatty acid deficiency,
and that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) significantly enhances visual acuity
maturation and cognitive functions. DHA is a conditionally essential nutrient
for adequate neurodevelopment in humans. Comprehensive clinical studies have
shown that dietary supplementation with marine oil or single-cell oil sources
of LC-PUFA results in increased blood levels of DHA and arachidonic acid, as
well as an associated improvement in visual function in formula-fed infants
matching that of human breast-fed infants.
The effect is mediated not only by the known effects on membrane
biophysical properties, neurotransmitter content, and the corresponding electrophysiological
correlates but also by a modulating gene expression of the developing retina
and brain. Intracellular fatty acids or their metabolites regulate transcriptional
activation of gene expression during adipocyte differentiation and retinal and
nervous system development.
Regulation of gene expression by LC-PUFA occurs at the
transcriptional level and may be mediated by nuclear transcription factors
activated by fatty acids. These nuclear receptors are part of the family of
steroid hormone receptors. DHA also has significant effects on photoreceptor membranes
and neurotransmitters involved in the signal transduction process; rhodopsin
activation, rod and cone development, neuronal dendritic connectivity, and
functional maturation of the central nervous system.
PMID: 11724460 [PubMed - in process]
* * *
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=11724460&dopt=Abstract
Uauy R, Hoffman DR, Peirano P, Birch DG, Birch EE. Institute
of Nutrition
and Food Technology (INTA), University of Chile, Santiago,
Chile.
Essential fatty acids are structural components of all
tissues and are indispensable for cell membrane synthesis; the brain, retina
and other neural tissues are particularly rich in long-chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids (LC-PUFA). These fatty acids serve as specific precursors for eicosanoids,
which regulate numerous cell and organ functions.
Recent human studies support the essential nature of n-3
fatty acids in addition to the well-established role of n-6 essential fatty
acids in humans, particularly in early life. The main findings are that light sensitivity
of retinal rod photoreceptors is significantly reduced in newborns with n-3
fatty acid deficiency, and that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) significantly
enhances visual acuity maturation and cognitive functions.
DHA is a conditionally essential nutrient for adequate neurodevelopment
in humans. Comprehensive clinical studies have shown that dietary
supplementation with marine oil or single-cell oil sources of LC-PUFA results
in increased blood levels of DHA and arachidonic acid, as well as an associated
improvement in visual function in formula-fed infants matching that of human
breast-fed infants.
The effect is mediated not only by the known effects on
membrane biophysical properties, neurotransmitter content, and the
corresponding electrophysiological correlates but also by a modulating gene
expression of the developing retina and brain. Intracellular fatty acids or
their metabolites regulate transcriptional activation of gene expression during
adipocyte differentiation and retinal and nervous system development.
Regulation of gene expression by LC-PUFA occurs at the
transcriptional level and may be mediated by nuclear transcription factors
activated by fatty acids. These nuclear receptors are part of the family of
steroid hormone receptors. DHA also has significant effects on photoreceptor membranes
and neurotransmitters involved in the signal transduction process; rhodopsin
activation, rod and cone development, neuronal dendritic connectivity, and
functional maturation of the central nervous system.
PMID: 11724460 [PubMed - in process]
* * *
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show called “Talking About” will be completely on Autism. It will be a call in show.
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