AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER     
Saturday December 22, 2001  

INDEX:
*  House-Senate Conferees Opt Only for Limited Action on Mental Health
*   CCHR Calls Vetoed Mandated Mental Health Parity Bill a Financial Loss
     for the Mental Health Cartel, Victory for Patients Rights
*  HealthSouth to Pilot Interactive Metronome(R) Training for Rehabilitation,
    Cognitive Disorders and Peak Performanc
*  Trigger Street corners three for 'Leland' pic
*  Starting To Learn How The Body Handles Inflammation  
*  US Lawmakers Approve Pediatric Drug Bill
*  Autistic Kids Have Unexplained Brain Growth
*
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House-Senate Conferees Opt Only for Limited Action on Mental Health

P.R.Newswire, 12/19/2001 09:34 Parity Legislation APA Expresses Frustration; Pledges to Continue Fight to End Discrimination Against Mentally Ill Patients WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Psychiatric Association (APA) expressed frustration that a House-Senate conference committee agreed yesterday only to a one-year extension of the limited 1996 Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) rather than the broad, meaningful protections in the Senate- passed Domenici-Wellstone parity amendment. The Domenici-Wellstone legislation sought to close the loopholes in the '96 MHPA and to prohibit health insurance plans from setting arbitrary, discriminatory limits on treatment for psychiatric disorders. "While we are appreciative of the decision by the conferees to extend the limited 1996 Mental Health Parity Act for one year, this is a stop-gap measure and is by no means a substantive vote for mental health parity," said APA President, Richard K. Harding, M.D. "It is difficult to understand the objections of a very few key House Members to the Domenici-Wellstone amendment, given the failure of House Committees to hold so much as a hearing on parity, let alone mark-up any meaningful parity legislation over the past six years." "Make no mistake: mental health parity is clearly supported by a majority of the U.S. Congress. Sixty-six Senators sponsored the Domenici-Wellstone mental health parity amendment that passed the Senate by unanimous voice vote. At least 244 Representatives have publicly expressed support for parity by cosponsoring parity legislation and/or signing letters of support for parity," continued Dr. Harding. "Despite majority support in both houses of Congress, a very few key powerful House leaders have blocked the millions of people in need of nondiscriminatory treatment from access to the same mental health coverage that Federal employees, including Members of Congress and their staff, already have. "The APA serves notice that we will not go away," said Dr. Harding. "There is no justification for allowing discrimination to continue against psychiatric patients. This is a battle for basic civil rights for our patients that we will continue to fight." "The APA pledges to continue working with Members of Congress to ensure meaningful mental health parity legislation is signed into law to end the stigma that has surrounded mental illness for centuries," said Dr. Harding. "We commend Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Representatives Marge Roukema (R-NJ), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), leaders of the House Working Group on Mental Illness, and the majority of the House and Senate who are committed to this fight for mental health parity." The APA acknowledges the efforts of Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) to extend the protections of the 1996 parity law for one year. Dr. Harding also thanked the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), for their support. "The APA is grateful to Senators Harkin and Specter for the fight they waged for mental health parity and for their understanding of the importance of mental health parity." The American Psychiatric Association is the nation's oldest medical specialty society, founded in 1844, whose 38,000 physician members specialize in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses including substance use disorders. MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT - Click Here http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X42951677 SOURCE American Psychiatric Association

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/353/wash/_House_Senate_Conferees_Opt_On:.shtml
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CCHR Calls Vetoed Mandated Mental Health Parity Bill a Financial Loss for the Mental Health Cartel, Victory for Patients Rights

U.S.Newswire, 12/19/2001 09:18 To: National Desk, Health Reporter Contact: Marla Filidei of The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, 800-869-2247 LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, (CCHR) an international psychiatric watchdog organization, said that Congress refusing to further fund Mandated Mental Health Parity was a victory for patients rights but a loss to psychiatry's bank balance. CCHR co-founder Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor emeritus of psychiatry and internationally acclaimed author of more than 25 books about psychiatry, said, ''Advocating 'parity for mental illness' is a hoax. The supporters of 'mental health parity' do not want parity for mental patients: They do not seek equal 'legal treatment' by legislators and courts for mental patients and medical patients. What they want is parity for psychiatrists: They seek equal 'monetary treatment' by health insurance companies for psychiatrists and other physicians.'' According to CCHR, Mandated Mental Health Parity cannot effectively exist because there is no parity in the diagnosis of mental health problems compared to real physical conditions that can be accurately tested for and diagnosed. Psychiatrists cannot distinguish between a mental disorder and no mental disorder. While some patient advocacy groups -- funded millions of dollars by pharmaceutical interests -- and the mental health lobby, purport that mental illness is like a physical disease such as diabetes, cancer, or epilepsy and, therefore, mental health parity is needed, evidence simply doesn't substantiate this. Many thousands, if not millions, of people are unnecessarily subjected to potentially dangerous psychiatric drugs and treated as mentally ill, when in fact they are not. If the mental health industry was to have its way, there would be unlimited coverage for each of the 374 ''disorders'' listed in psychiatry's ''billing bible,'' The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The manual includes such ''disorders'' as: mathematics disorder, nicotine use, caffeine intoxication, conduct disorder, opposition defiant disorder, and the catch-all ''Phase of Life Problem.'' Anyone can be labeled mentally ill based on opinion. This doesn't help patients, it codifies them and prevents them from accessing real medical help. A ''Blank Check'' for Quackery Despite assertions that mental disorders are genetically or biologically based or the result of a ''chemical imbalance,'' there is no medically sound or scientific basis to these claims. Psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen says that when patients are told that there are biochemical imbalances in the brain causing their psychiatric condition, ''they are being seriously misled.'' In his book Blaming The Brain, biopsychologist Elliot S. Valenstein says, ''Contrary to what is claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.'' The ''theories are held on to not only because there is nothing else to take their place, but also because they are useful in promoting drug treatment,'' he says. There are no checks and balances to prove who has a mental disorder and who doesn't; therefore, mandated mental health insurance coverage amounts to a blank check for the mental health cartel. Though this bill was defeated, the public and the government should not be fooled by future claims that it is needed or that the costs for mental health parity will be ''low.'' The Congressional Budget Office estimates costs at $5.4 billion for the Federal government and $23 billion for the American people over the next 10 years. During a period of nine years when Aetna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield offered mental health coverage comparable to general medical services their total health care expenditures tripled. For the same period their mental health expenditures increased more than six-fold. In the wake of the terrorist attacks and continuing threats, businesses are wrestling with a slowing economy, falling stock markets and a soaring number of layoffs. According to the Wall Street Journal on October 8, 2001, ''Insurance-premium rates are doubling for some coverages, adding an extra burden to companies already dealing with the global economic slowdown.'' Mandated Mental Health Parity should not be reintroduced, as no mental health parity law can legitimately rely on a ''billing bible,'' the DSM. To view The Citizens Commission on Human Rights full report on Mandated Mental Health Parity, visit: http://www.psychassault.com/parity(underscore)analysis(underscore )cover.htm CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/353/nation/_CCHR_Calls_Vetoed_Mandated_Me:.shtml
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HealthSouth to Pilot Interactive Metronome(R) Training for Rehabilitation, Cognitive Disorders and Peak Performance

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In an agreement announced today,HealthSouth Corporation (NYSE: HRC), the nation's largest healthcare servicesprovider with more than 1,900 facilities in all 50 states and abroad, willpilot Interactive Metronome(R) (IM) training at select locations for personsseeking rehabilitation, improvements in cognitive disorders and peakperformance in academics, athletics and the performing arts.The Interactive Metronome(R) is an innovative technology that uses timingto improve motor planning, coordination and concentration. Currently more than600 hospitals, clinics and schools nationwide use the IM to address a varietyof challenges related to timing, attention and motor planning, including thosecommonly experienced by people with stroke, brain injury, attention deficithyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cerebral palsy, autism, Parkinson's disease,and different types of language and learning disorders, as well as to improveachievement in academics, athletics and the performing arts."The Interactive Metronome appears to affect a core mental process thathas been shown to be important in speech, problem solving and motor controland is often damaged in stroke and brain injury patients, as well as in peoplewith certain cognitive disorders," said Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth'sChairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.  "At HealthSouth we see asmany as 100,000 patients per day, many of whom we believe could benefit fromIM training."In a clinical study published in the American Journal of OccupationalTherapy, the Interactive Metronome(R) was found to produce significant gainsin children with ADHD in the areas of concentration, motor planning, controlof aggression, language processing and reading.  Interactive Metronometraining has been found to improve motor planning and coordination in bothchildren and adults in academic and athletic endeavors.  In addition, IMperformance correlates with academic achievement in areas such as mathematics,language, reading, and attention to task.  These findings are consistent withrecent research on the growth of the brain that indicates that environmentalinfluences, not just genetics, can facilitate brain development."HealthSouth, with its extensive network of healthcare facilities, isknown as the leader in rehabilitation.  It is uniquely suited to offer IMassessments and training for a wide range of rehabilitation issues, forcognitive learning disorders and to address peak academic and athleticperformance," said Tom Eggleston, CEO and co-founder of Interactive Metronome,Inc.  "We anticipate that following completion of their IM certified training,HealthSouth staff will utilize this new technology to help a broad range ofissues that their patients face."Using a patented feedback system, the computer-powered IM program takestrainees through a series of coordinated movements and progressivelychallenges them to improve their timing by precisely matching the computer'srhythm.  The IM measures their "score" as the average millisecond gap betweentheir coordinated efforts and the actual beat that they attempt to match.Through a series of training sessions, the IM systematically lowers thetrainees' "score" and thus improves their internal sense of timing, focus andcoordination.  Typically in rehabilitation and cognitive disorders cases, thetraining improves the score from outside the norm to normal; in performanceapplications, the training improves the score from normal to an elite level.Interactive Metronome, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered inWeston, Fla., with research and clinical support facilities in Grand Rapids,Mich.(See http://www.interactivemetronome.com , http://www.im-powered.com or call954-385-4660)HealthSouth can be found on the Web at http://www.healthsouth.com

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-20-2001/0001637515&EDATE=
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Trigger Street corners three for 'Leland' pic

Don Cheadle ("Ocean's Eleven"), Jena Malone ("Life as a House") and Michelle Williams ("Dawson's Creek") have joined the cast of Trigger Street Prods.' "United States of Leland," which MDP Worldwide and Thousand Worlds have come on board to co-finance. The project begins shooting Jan. 28 with first-time helmer Matthew Ryan Hoge directing from his script. "Leland" stars Ryan Gossling as 15-year-old Leland, who murders an autistic child and claims that he committed the act out of sadness. The boy is sent to a juvenile facility, where a male teacher named Pearl must unravel the mystery behind Leland's murderous act and sadness while dealing with how the tragic killing affects the families of both the victim and the perpetrator. Chris Klein also stars. Trigger Street's Kevin Spacey and Bernie Morris and Thousand Words' Palmer West and Jonah Smith will produce, and MDP's Mark Damon will executive produce the film. Additionally, MDP has acquired international distribution rights to the piece, while Thousand Words has domestic rights.(Zorianna Kit) Full story: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/login/login_subscribe.jsp?vnu_service_id=139

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/frontpage/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1222866
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Starting To Learn How The Body Handles Inflammation

After a decade of research, Michail Sitkovsky, Ph.D., and his coworkers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), may have answered one of the most perplexing questions in immunology: how the body limits inflammation. Their finding, that particular cell surface molecules sense runaway inflammation and tissue damage, appears in today's issue of the journal Nature.Inflammation, tissue swelling usually accompanied by pain and heat, is the body's generic response to a host of insults: invasion by bacteria or viruses, injury, or reactions to one's own tissues. Within limits, inflammation is a valuable ally in the body's fight against invaders. But left unchecked, inflammation exposes a decidedly dangerous side. Chronic inflammation is characteristic of such disorders as asthma, chronic hepatitis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.Although many drugs lessen or halt inflammation, very little is known about the body's own mechanism for controlling inflammation and the tissue damage that accompanies it. "Clearly, there must be some way for the body to shout, 'Enough already! Stop the inflammation,'" explains Dr. Sitkovsky. The shout, or signal, must be sensed and responded to so that inflammatory activity abates. "We wanted to learn what the signals and sensors are in living organisms," he says.Adenosine and its membrane-bound receptor made attractive candidates for signal and sensor, Dr. Sitkovsky notes. A simple molecule that leads a busy life, adenosine is the core of the cell's energy-containing compound, ATP, and elevated levels of it in the brain appear to cause sleep. Despite its numerous roles throughout the body, adenosine has received little attention from immunologists, says Dr. Sitkovsky. "I was pursuing the idea that adenosine has some important function in the immune system, too," he says. This much is known: when tissue damage mounts due to prolonged inflammation, oxygen levels in the damaged area fall. This in turn leads to increased amounts of adenosine outside cells. Dr. Sitkovsky theorized that the excess adenosine binds to the adenosine receptors, which then initiate a chain reaction that slows and eventually stops inflammation. Attractive as they are as candidates, adenosine and its receptor are just one of many signal-sensor pairs on the cell's surface. Any of these might also be the elusive inflammation-damping mechanism. To prove the role of adenosine receptors in controlling inflammation, Dr. Sitkovsky turned to specific genetically engineered mice. These mice lack adenosine receptors, but are identical to normal mice in every other way. When exposed to various inflammatory stimuli (for example, a drug that mimics virus-induced liver damage), the receptor-deficient mice suffered extensive tissue damage and in some cases died, while normal mice were either unaffected or suffered minimal tissue damage. Further experiments revealed that no other receptor could substitute for the adenosine receptor. Mice lacking the critical molecular brake could not halt either organ-specific or body-wide inflammation."The discovery that adenosine receptors play a central physiologic role in limiting inflammation is an important conceptual advance," says William Paul, M.D., chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Immunology, where Dr. Sitkovsky conducts his research."It may help us find new ways to control excessive inflammation in a wide range of clinical situations. It may also allow us to develop new ways to enhance the inflammatory response, when that is desirable, to make better vaccines and anti-tumor drugs," Dr. Paul adds. An additional, provocative finding emerged from Dr. Sitkovsky's recent work. When exposed to a caffeine-like substance, mice in the study had difficulty controlling acute inflammation. It has been known for many years that caffeine interferes with the adenosine receptor. If, in fact, adenosine receptors are needed for effective inflammation control, anything that hinders their function might impair the body's ability to regulate inflammation. Dr. Sitkovsky plans additional research to see if this possible caffeine-inflammation connection exists in humans as well. NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illnesses, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies. - By Anne A. Oplinger(Reference: A Ohta and M Sitkovsky. Role of adenosine receptors in downregulation of inflammation and protection from tissue damage. Nature 414: 916-20 [2001].)

http://unisci.com/stories/20014/1220015.htm
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US Lawmakers Approve Pediatric Drug Bill

By Julie RovnerWASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - The US House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill that would renew for 6 years a program that encourages drugmakers to test their products on children.The bill now goes to President Bush (news - web sites), who is expected to sign it.The Senate approved the compromise version of the ``Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act'' last week.The bill renews a program that provides drugmakers with 6 additional months of exclusive marketing rights without generic competition if they agree to test their products on children after a request from the US Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA).The bill would also add a new program that would provide funding for pediatric testing of drugs whose patents have already expired.``According to the FDA, this law has done more to advance pediatric testing and prescribing information than any other regulatory or legislative process to date,'' said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA).But support for the measure, which originally passed the House in November, was far from unanimous.``The legislation we're considering today is not about children,'' said Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), one of the program's most outspoken critics. ``It's about the most influential industry on Capitol Hill co-opting an issue to lock in another 5 years of unjustifiable, unearned revenues.''Brown said that for blockbuster drugs like Prilosec, Prozac and Zocor, the 6 extra months of market exclusivity can add $50 to $70 to the price consumers pay for a prescription. While the bill does not guarantee that drugs will be tested on children, Brown said, ``we're guaranteeing consumers 6 months of grossly inflated prices on some of the top-selling drugs in the country.''Tauzin, however, said that on average, the drugs that have gained exclusivity are not the top sellers. According to the Government Accounting Office, Tauzin said, 20 of 37 drugs granted exclusivity so far have not been among the top 200 in sales.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011219/hl/pediatricdrug_1.html
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Autistic Kids Have Unexplained Brain Growth

By Serena Gordon
HealthScoutNews ReporterWEDNESDAY, Dec. 19 (HealthScoutNews) -- No one knows exactly what causes autism, but researchers are zeroing in on some basic biological differences between autistic children and children who develop normally. New research has found that young autistic children have larger brains than most kids. But bigger isn't necessarily better, because the autistic children were not able to recognize or react to changes in other people's emotions. "These studies tell us that autism involves problems in very basic levels of social and emotional processing," says Geraldine Dawson, one of the researchers and the director of the University of Washington Autism Center. The University of Washington researchers studied a group of about 50 children who were 3 and 4 years old. Some were autistic, some had developmental delays and others developed normally. The autistic children had varying levels of autistic symptoms, says Dawson. One of the first things Dawson's colleague, Dr. Stephen Dager, a professor of psychiatry and radiology, noted was that the brains of the autistic children were about 10 percent larger than those of normal or developmentally delayed children, according to Dawson. At birth, all of the children's heads measured a normal size, so something happened between birth and age 3 in the autistic children to accelerate the growth of their brains, she says. Using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging, Dager also discovered that one portion of the brain, the amygdala, was disproportionately larger in autistic children. The amygdala is a part of the brain used for emotional processing, particularly for picking up cues on people's emotions, according to Dawson. It is located in the lobes on either side of the brain behind the temples. "This finding is intriguing because we know autism involves problems connecting with people's emotions," says Dawson. Dawson's team wanted to see how well autistic children would react to pictures of people showing different emotional expressions. After being fitted with sensors that monitored their brain activity, the children were shown two pictures. One was of a woman with a neutral expression. The other showed the woman with a frightened expression. Dawson says the researchers chose the fear expression for two reasons. The first is that the amygdala is sensitive to picking up on fear. From research on normally developing children, it is known that by the age of 7 months, babies show a different reaction to a fear face than to a neutral one. Dawson says this response probably developed during evolution because it would be important to be able to respond if another member of your species was showing fear. However, she says, the children with autism had no difference in brain activity when shown the two pictures, while the normally developing children showed a larger brain response when they saw the fear picture. "This suggests that at a very basic level . . . these children are not really interpreting or responding to emotional cues in a normal way," Dawson says. "Some pretty basic brain systems are disrupted." Knowing this could lead to better and earlier intervention programs, she adds. "If at 10 to 12 months, a baby is not responding, it would alert us that we should be checking the child for autism," she says. And early intervention is important because the earlier treatment starts, the more chance there is to rewire the developing brain, she adds. The findings of these studies were presented early last month at the first International Meeting for Autism Research, which was part of the annual meeting for the Society for Neuroscience. "This is an extremely important area of investigation," says Dr. Eric London, vice president of medical affairs for the National Alliance for Autism Research. "There could be a very discreet biological system involved in facial recognition," London adds, and if this is the case, there could end up being a relatively simple biological treatment for it when researchers discover exactly what's going wrong in the autistic brain. What to Do: If you'd like to know more about autism, read this article from Kid's Health, or this one from the Autism Society of America.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20011219/hl/autistic_kids_have_unexplained_brain_growth_1.html
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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.