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How do you solve a problem like aggression?

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Irritability and aggression are dangerous behaviors that can lead to harm and injury and are overlooked in research. Unfortunately there are only two FDA medications approved to treat them in autism. The drugs have many side effects, and there are efforts to improve these treatments and minimize side effects by lowering the dose with adjunct therapies that enhance the efficacy of the drug. So far, there are a few promising leads, but nothing that is ready for the clinic. How do scientists make the move from an interesting discovery in a lab to testing the safety and efficacy of a drug? Through animal models or model systems that examine different phenotypes in an animal and test medications on outcomes like aggression. Mice are not people, but they are necessary to ensure safe and effective treatments are translated into practice.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38263251/

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What’s the latest on minocycline for autism?

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This week’s podcast re-explores a question about a potential therapy for autism – minocycline. Minocycline is an antibiotic used to treat a number of different infections and some anecdotal reports have linked it to an improvement of autism. This has led to some experimental trials on minocycline, with inconclusive results. This week, a multisite study showed NO effects of minocycline for autism features or outcomes, but that doesn’t mean it is NOT a great antibotic. If you need it, use it! Also, do autistic people spend too much time on their screens? Well, they seem to spend more time on devices and screens, but it might all be bad. Listen to the podcast for more information on this.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-023-06132-1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10709772/?report=printable

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Happy Pride 2023

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With just a few weeks to go until June, this week’s podcast is a short summary of the prevalence of transsexuality in the autism community and how many people are autistic in the trans community. More importantly, there are guidelines about the identification and care for those who have these co-occurring conditions. The references mentioned are below:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36996732/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36721890/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36358354/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15374416.2016.1228462

https://4w.pub/autism-puberty-gender-dysphoria-view-from-an-autistic-desisted-woman/amp/

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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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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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Parents! Parents! Parents!

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Parents are now used as intervention partners through a design called parent-mediated intervention. It started to be studied before the pandemic but has now become a necessity. Does it work? Should it always work for everything? How long should the intervention last and how often? These are all questions of interest, and while research is still early, parents can be amazing partners in intervention especially below age 5. The provide opportunities for learning and communication, and they can utilize more hours during the day at home than traditional in-clinic services can. Of course not every family is the same and may not have the same abilities to learn the intervention, and in the future more of these contextual factors need to be studied. But for now, three cheers for parents helping their kids!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34867556/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35037520/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35040001/

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Passing as Non-Autistic

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You may know this as “masking” or “camouflaging” where autistic adults intentionally or unintentionally hide their autistic features to pass as non-autistic because they want to hide some of their challenges. This week, Drs. Erin Libsack and Matthew Lerner from Stony Brook University summarize a systematic review on this behavior. The original goal was to develop their own studies, but as it turns out, there are still so many unanswered questions to deal with that were unearthed from this systematic review.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34505231/

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ABA studies in ASD are not perfect

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ABA and ABA – inspired behavioral therapies like Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions are the most commonly used in autism. They have become more sophisticated in design, using control groups and implementing other ways to minimize bias. But when you put all of the data together around ABA-type interventions in a pile, are they effective? Do they work? It turns out, just like everything, these studies are not perfect. But even using the strictest of criteria, the results are positive for the support of social communication skills. Of course, there are nuances and details, you can hear about them in this podcast.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31763860/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33482692/

THE FACTS BEHIND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS
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Potential of therapy cats, training for parents, and help for families of diverse backgrounds

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What do cats, the Developmental Check-In and parent training all have in common? They all have the documented potential to help children gain emotional skills, social skills, and receive earlier intervention. A small study shows the potential of a well-tempered cat in easing symptoms of autism. Parent training has been shown time and time again to improve functioning across different domains and a new screening tool based on visual scenarios has been validated in Hispanic populations. Thank you for listening this week!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33290937/

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=33303635

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33287762/

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Gender difference update

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Girls and boys with autism generally show the same symptoms of ASD overall, but what about different aspects of features? What would happen if you studied girls and boys separately and examined detailed assessments of things like motor skills, repetitive behavior, communication or social interaction? These are where subtle signs of differences between genders is showing up. Girls show a higher age of diagnosis, but that depends on cognitive ability. Also, girls with ASD seem to have superior social interaction skills, which reflects normal gender differences. These differences are magnified over time. A new study also looks at Vitamin D levels during pregnancy and outcome in boys vs. girls…..the results are still unclear but interesting.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33137209/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33135392/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33136459/