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Oxytocin: hitting a small nail with a giant sledgehammer?

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This week’s podcast is inspired by a new study in PNAS thatlooked at the role of methylation of the oxytocin receptor in social behavior in people without autism.  Together with studies of the brains of people with autism, it suggests that filling the brains with oxytocin may not be the best approach for treating social impairments.  Instead, compounds that turn on or turn off the genes that control oxytocin may be more appropriate, and it also may help explain variability in why some people respond to oxytocin treatment, and why others do not.   Also, scientific technology has a new way of studying the influence of the environment on brain development.

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Moving the needle towards earlier diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders

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This week, the CDC published data that showed that the average age of first developmental evaluation for concerns was lowered by 5 months.  Five months is a lot to a family whose child is suffering and in need of help.  Separately, research out of Houston shows that many families are able to skip the formal evaluation and receive intervention prior to an established diagnosis based on demonstrated need that the child needs services.  This was the good news in autism, and while there is still a lot to be done especially with regards to racial and ethnic differences, public health is moving in the right direction on this issue.  But not all people with autism view their differences as symptoms or a disability.  What can we learn from people who use sign language to communicate to inform us about the way some people with autism communicate?  A special meeting called Conversations in Autism and Sign Language (CASL) brought experts and individuals on the spectrum to discuss.

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Someone please determine the real prevalence of autism.

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Media coverage of the new CDC study focused on the new study which used a telephone survey for another prevalence estimate of autism.  This one closer to 2% or 1 in 45.  The study is far from perfect, but it does beg the question:  what is the REAL number?  How many people with autism are there?  The answer is too many, and all those people need help of some kind. You can read the full article here: NHSR87.   Second, a summary of a presentation by David Mandell of University of Pennsylvania who explains what needs to happen to get those great interventions developed in the clinic to the community school systems, where they are needed.

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A traditional strategy in autism intervention may be hurting not helping.

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Two interesting studies this week.  The first from researchers studying a learning strategy called repetition.  As it turns out, it may impair the ability for people with autism to generalize what they learn into new situations, like learning that a golden retriever is a dog and a beagle is also a dog.  Also, researchers in Australia comb the autism literature to determine what the financial costs and benefits of supportive employment are and discover that getting people with autism employed is good for the soul and good for the economy.  That study is open access and can be found here:  http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0139896