Genetic Condition May Be Mistaken for Autism in Some Kids: Report – WebMD

Genetic Condition May Be Mistaken for Autism in Some Kids: Report – WebMD: Some children diagnosed with autism may actually have a genetic deletion disorder instead, according to a new study.

These children are often misdiagnosed because the social impairments associated with their developmental delay can resemble features of autism, said the researchers at the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute.

Rates of autism in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome have been reported at between 20 percent and 50 percent. But this study found that none of the 29 children with the syndrome "met strict diagnostic criteria" for autism.

Enrichment therapy effective among children with autism, UCI study finds | UCIrvine News

Enrichment therapy effective among children with autism, UCI study finds | UCIrvine News: Children with autism showed significant improvement after six months of simple sensory exercises at home using everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges, according to UC Irvine neurobiologists.

They found that a treatment known as environmental enrichment led to notable gains in male subjects between the ages of 3 and 12. Results appear online in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Study co-authors Cynthia Woo and Michael Leon randomly assigned 28 boys to one of two groups, balanced for age and autism severity. For half a year, all subjects participated in standard autism therapies, but those in one group also had daily sensory enrichment exercises.

Clinical research: Autism, bipolar disorder may often overlap — SFARI.org - Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative

Clinical research: Autism, bipolar disorder may often overlap — SFARI.org - Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative: As much as 30 percent of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may also have autism, suggests a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry1.

Bipolar disorder affects about 1 percent of children and is characterized by severe mood swings between mania and depression. Some of the symptoms, such as irritability and aggression, are also common in autism.

Studies Link Infertility Treatments to Autism - TIME

Studies Link Infertility Treatments to Autism - TIME: Every parent of a child with autism wonders what might have caused the disorder. Does it secretly run in the family? Was there a toxic exposure during pregnancy? An infection in early infancy? Was the mother or father too old?

Amy Sawelson Landes of Tarzana, Calif., has asked herself all of these questions, plus one more: Could the fact that she had taken an infertility drug to get pregnant have contributed to her son Ted's autism? "It was one of the first things I wondered about," says Landes, who was 37 when Ted was born 18 years ago.

Can a common hormone prevent unborn babies from developing autism? | Fox News

Can a common hormone prevent unborn babies from developing autism? | Fox News: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), both conditions that are neurodevelopmental in origin, may share some similar molecular vulnerabilities, according to a new rodent study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

When researchers from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Ill., exposed pregnant rats to alcohol, they found their offspring experienced symptoms of social impairment and altered-levels of genes that have been previously linked to autism in humans.

Boston Children’s Hospital testing transplant drug on children with autism - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe

Boston Children’s Hospital testing transplant drug on children with autism - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe: After joining a clinical trial at Boston Children’s Hospital, Katie started to speak in complete sentences for the first time, her 30-second attention span extended into minutes, and she was finally able to retain information from one day to the next, said her mother, Susan Mills.