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Managing autism practice from a distance: it’s called ECHO

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Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) pairs specialist centers with community providers to help them manage cases and empower them with knowledge to help their patients locally. It is done over the computer, which is especially relevant today. The goal is to help clinicians and physicians manage patients when local expertise is not available. Micah Mazurek of University of Virginia recently published a randomized study about the efficacy of this program, and is a special guest on the podcast to explain what it is and how it can be used to help doctors help each other and their families.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2762007

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Commonly used drugs that may help autism

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Sometimes treatment targets come from the places you wouldn’t expect.  This week, three new studies on the biological and sometimes, behavioral, effects of three commonly used compounds used to treat high cholesterol, edema, and angina were studied in people with autism.  Instead of focusing on just the behavior however, these studies took the approach of examining them from the behavioral side, determining if there was a biological reason why these compounds should be helping people with autism.  This means autism research has turned a corner – it’s not just about behavioral improvements, but about how the drug is working in the brain.  Also, a fun study about social media in people with autism.  They don’t just use it like the rest of us, it actually makes people with autism happy.

Here are the studies included in this week’s podcast:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29485900

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29484909

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29484149

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29483603

 

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A different type of autism?

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Last week, investigators with the Autism Treatment Network published a long awaited study on the differences between the DSM IV and DSM5.    Other studies had relied on information on old pieces of paper to judge whether or not someone who met criteria under DSM IV would be now diagnosed with DSM5 criteria.  This study, on the other hand, used in person evaluations of over 400 individuals with autism.  PI from the Missouri site and lead author of a new study, Dr. Micah Mazurek was gracious enough to provide a summary of the findings in the podcast.  A quick preview:  they showed differences in the diagnosis in the group previously known as PDD-NOS.  Is this a new type of autism?  Their symptoms were less severe and they had normal IQ ability – do they have a subtype of autism or a new form of ADHD?  This study isn’t the first to suggest using different categories of symptoms of autism like DSM IV did, and indicates that the new criteria of the DSM  5 are more specific.  In addition, a 2 minute summary of all the great presentations at the Autism Society of America is given.  Totally insufficient to describe everything that went on, but it’s a start.