Tag Archives: developmental delay
Placentas and autism
Several people have inquired about a new paper tying abnormalities in the placenta with an autism outcome in the offspring. This work involved a collaboration between Cheryl Walker and colleagues at UC Davis and Harvey Kliman at Yale in which … Continue reading
Psychiatric cliff avoided
In this morning’s SFARI website, Emily Singer nicely summarized the approval of DSM-5: “After several years of debate, the American Psychological Association has approved the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the guidelines used to diagnose psychiatric … Continue reading
Cluster analysis of symptoms identifies a very significant “immune group” in autism patients
The heterogeneity of symptoms among patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a major problem for researchers working on the etiology and pathology of the disorder. This diversity also poses a significant hurdle in evaluating the efficacy of potential therapies. Various … Continue reading
Visual map coding nature versus nurture across England
O.S.P. Davis and colleagues at King’s College, London just published a provocative paper that aims to plot on a map of England the geographic distribution of the relative contributions of genetics and environment to 45 different childhood cognitive and behavioral … Continue reading
New immune-related autism reports from IMFAR
asdresearchinitiative points out on his/her blog 5 abstracts from the current International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), run by the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). The abstracts are all from UC Davis/MIND Institute. One puzzling finding in the Schwartzer … Continue reading
Biomarkers for schizophrenia and autism
Currently, mental disorders are diagnosed by analysis of behavior and reports from the patient on their own thoughts. This way of diagnosing disease can be difficult, subjective and messy, particularly with regard to symptom overlaps between disorders. It also necessitates … Continue reading
Autism mtg Tomorrow; Pandas mtg in Sept
At least for those of you who live in SoCal, there are 2 mtgs of interest to the public coming up: Sat, May 5, 1-2;30pm, Calif Sci Center, next to the Natural History Museum and the Coliseum Autism: An Epidemic … Continue reading
Maternal obesity and risk for autism in the offspring
A new paper from the MIND Institute and UC Davis links pre-pregnancy obesity (>198 lbs) and excessive weight gain during pregnancy (>40 lbs) with increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or developmental delay in the offspring. In the population … Continue reading