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Let’s talk about poop

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This week we discuss the CANDID meeting: Consortium for Autism, Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Digestive Diseases, what was shared, what was learned, and where doctors and researchers need to do more. They included the link between the brain-gut connection, challenges in diagnosis, ongoing studies, potential solutions, and what pediatric gastroenterologists need to know about helping families with NDD’s and GI issues. Go to www.candidgi.com to watch the full set of presentations by scientists, families, and advocates.

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Little things to help the autism community

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We’ve heard a lot about social robots – do they help? One or two studies are not going to answer this, but a systematic review and meta analysis will! It turns out when you combined all the data, they do help in social abilities, but not other areas. This is how technology can help those with autism, especially technology which can be adapted to address the heterogeneity across the spectrum. And what about more subtle changes in the environment like light, sound, the built environment in classrooms and the home? Are there things that can be done that should be taken into account when these things are being built or modified? Again, a review article can help decipher all of the little studies that have been published over the year. Listen to specific recommendations for builders, architects, and even you as you make your home more autism friendly.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0269800

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613221102753?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed

https://lukerosen212.medium.com/the-supreme-courts-decision-impact-on-the-rare-genetic-disease-community-f9ac22bd1411

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Is autism a yes/no diagnosis?

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This week’s podcast highlights a paper from the IBIS (infant brain imaging study) that tracks infants from 6 months to 5 years of age to examine how ASD symptoms cluster together. These infants either have a diagnosis or they don’t, or they have something which doesn’t meet diagnostic threshold but is still impairing in some way. Ignoring the actual diagnosis, if the data is clustered together around how symptoms present, what happens? What does that mean for some of the longest standing research findings in ASD? For example, using this new approach which ignores and actual diagnosis, are more males are diagnosed than females? As it turns out, it equals out these ratios. What does this mean? Listen to this week’s podcast to hear directly from the first author, Catherine Burrows!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322322013130?casa_token=ZFZpvnUOIBkAAAAA:G667QIkX_Vd6JPeWvIPABo1FPrdNL_3IiW-ajy7xR2Nme_I4ztOEf2xJ4FyhGHTMgrb8Lqq6Og

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Hybrid is Most Helpful

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This year’s first podcast dedicated to COVID issues explores both caregiver and clinician satisfaction with telehealth. New studies explore this satisfaction with assessment as well as psychiatric interventions. Also, as a follow up to the INSAR presentations on resiliency in mental health, a new study from Canada explains what may be at the core of this resiliency. Finally – why are some autistic people still not getting vaccinated?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126276/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35579789/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35575840/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9088649/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9023320/

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Pasta, music pieces and pills

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This week, the #ASFpodcast explores different types of interventions for which the core autism features are not necessarily the target, but those that enhance quality of life and provide help for irritability and emotional dysregulation. They include cooking, music therapies and antipsychotic medications. While they may not be effective in core autism features, they may help in other ways.

https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(22)00198-8/fulltext

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004381.pub4/full

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422222000890?via%3Dihub

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Autism means different things to different people

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At this year’s International Society of Autism Research meeting in Austin, TX, there was a variety of themes explored. From early development and milestones, to intervention and supports, to different features like sensory issues, treatment, and how to solve the problem of heterogeneity. It comes down to this: Autism means different things to different people. This is just a small subset of everything that was presented at #INSAR2022 and I hope that if you want to see more, you advocate to have the presentations posted online or even have the program book made available publicly. In the meantime, enjoy the 30 minute summary.

www.autism-insar.org

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What’s in the medicine jar?

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This week is a pharmacopeia of inflation. The #ASFpodcast talks debilitating gastrointestinal issues and new efforts to understand and treat them (including the CANDID meeting www.candidgi.com), a new method to understand adverse events in those that cannot report them on their own, and new news on Celexa, which is used to treat anxiety.

www.candidgi.com

info@candidgi.com

https://www.theautismstudy.com

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35165451/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35501967/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34652075/

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How that little amygdala makes a big difference in autism

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The amygdala has been shown to be differently sized in autistic people – at first it is too big then it becomes smaller than typically developing people. But how early are these differences seen and does it relate to a diagnosis? The Infant Brain Imaging Study tackled this question in a recent study which compared those who were likely to develop autism at 6 months to those with Fragile X to see if there were differences and if it was specific to autism. Their findings will surprise you and have implications for targeted supports and interventions.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35331012/

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Everything you wanted to know, and more, about the revisions to the CDC developmental milestones

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In February, the CDC worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics to update the developmental milestones that parents should use when referencing how their child is developing. These milestones describe what should be accomplished by times as young as 2 months and as old as 5 months. These are helpful to all parents who wonder “shouldn’t my child be walking by now” and “how many words should they be saying”? Pediatricians ask parents about these and parents are expected to know them, so prepare yourselves now. What are milestones? Why change them? What are the changes? Learn more on this week’s #ASFpodcast.

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/index.html

The article is free:

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/3/e2021052138/184748/Evidence-Informed-Milestones-for-Developmental

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Tooth brushing: It’s not for sissies

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Parents or caregivers of children with ASD sometimes have a lot of difficulty helping their child brush their teeth. Parents and caregivers of children not on the spectrum have difficulty helping their child brush their teeth. By working with families on an individual level, coaching, encouraging and breaking down each of the steps of tooth brushing into something manageable, a group of Medicaid-eligible parents helped their children learn these skills on some level by the end of the study. Incredibly, 93% of parents who are trying to do it all with less, stayed in the program and felt more confident about their abilities. This study also used a randomized clinical trial design which compared the training and coaching with just those who got some toothbrushes and toothpastes in the mail. In this week’s #ASFpodcast, you get to hear from the leaders and the therapists who helped these families, what they did, and what worked. Join me with Dr. Eric Butter, Kelly Birmingham and Dr. Rachel Fenning to hear more about this study.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35211746/