Posts tagged as:

Autism

Three studies shed light on effectiveness of autism treatments

by Tripp Underwood on April 4, 2011

April is Autism Awareness Month

For parents raising children with autism, there always seems to be more questions than answers. And with as many as one in every 110 children in the United States being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), more questions are being asked everyday. Unfortunately, much about ASDs remain a mystery. For starters, researchers don’t know what causes autism. Current theories suggest it may be caused by environmental, biologic and genetic factors, or a combination of all three, but so far no one can prove anything definitively.

And the confusion doesn’t end with the origins of autism. Its treatment can be puzzling as well because there’s no guarantee an intervention that helps one child on the spectrum will work for someone else.

To help clinicians and families better understand the benefits of some ASD interventions, the medical journal Pediatrics recently published three different studies on the effectiveness of certain ASD treatment methods. The use of medication, behavioral interventions and the introduction of a digestive hormone called secretin were all individually examined and reviewed based on their methodology and success in treating ASDs. Full story »

Leave a comment

Can the new iPad take therapy apps to the next level?

by Tripp Underwood on March 17, 2011

Photo: flickr/ smemon87

If you’ve spent time in front of a TV or computer lately, you probably already know that Apple just released the latest version of the iPad, a faster and more portable edition of the already popular tablet. As the mobile technology revolution gathers speed, many medical professionals are trying to incorporate these devices into their practices, but few have been as successful as clinicians using it in their work with patients whose abilities to communicate has been hindered by a medical condition. Howard Shane, PhD, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Center for Communication Enhancement (CCE) is the owner of two new iPads, and an advocate for their use in clinical settings.

“Technology plays a big role in enriching the lives of many people with communication disorders, not just children on the autism spectrum, but people with motor impairments like cerebral palsy or people who are deaf or hard of hearing as well,” Shane says. “These new devices are giving many people communication options that weren’t available a few years ago.” Full story »

Leave a comment

Children’s in the news

by Tripp Underwood on March 5, 2011

The New York Times reports on the state of federal incentives for doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic medical records and notes the long-range vision of computerized patient data is what health care specialists call a “learning health system.” Children’s Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, speaks to obstacles to such a national computer-enabled learning system.

______________________________________________________

The Boston Globe reports on the challenges parents are facing as they try and reduce the amounts of television their children watch. Children’s Michael Rich, MD, MPH, comments on how stressful it is for parents when they need to change their children’s television viewing habits.

______________________________________________________

MIT Technology Review reports on a new study by Children’s William Bosl, PhD, and Charles Nelson, PhD, which analyzed the electrical activity in infants’ brains to predict early on which could be at high risk of developing autism.

______________________________________________________

Children’s Kimberly Hall, MS, CCC-SLP, speaks with WCVB-TV Channel 5 about stuttering in a segment that highlights how the movie “The King’s Speech” is helping debunk some misconceptions about the diagnosis.

______________________________________________________

Claire McCarthy, MD, speaks with Reuters Health about a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that for the first time offers guidelines from the AAP on treating kids’ fevers with over-the-counter medications.

______________________________________________________

ModernMedicine.com reports on new research from Children’s Charles Berde, MD, PhD, and collaborators that finds patients given a new local anesthetic derived from algae experienced less postoperative pain and recovered about two days sooner than those given the commonly used local anesthetic.

Leave a comment

Children’s in the news

by Tripp Underwood on February 5, 2011

Here at Children’s Hospital Boston, our staff prides itself on providing world-class care for every patient that comes through our doors. But when they’re not busy performing surgeries, setting bones or caring for patients, many of our clinicians are doing research that will shape the future of pediatrics, or discussing how those changes will impact everyday care for thousands of people. Here’s a quick round up of what Children’s employees have been discussing with the media this past week.

********

A safer and earlier way to determine if a fetus has Down syndrome is being studied

An article in The Los Angeles Times discusses new technology soon to be available that will allow women to know early in their pregnancy whether they are carrying a fetus with Down syndrome. Children’s Brian Skotko, MD, MPP, speaks with the paper about the new tests – which are noninvasive and will pose fewer risks to the mother and fetus than current prenatal testing—and the questions they raise.

Dr. Skotko wrote a similar piece for Thrive last week and has opened a wide debate on the subject of prenatal testing.

______________________________________________________

Full story »

Leave a comment

With autism, vaccines aren’t the problem, misinformation is

by Claire McCarthy on January 11, 2011

Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Take a look at her blog archive and follow her on Twitter @drClaire.

The news that Dr. Andrew Wakefield appears to have invented some of the information in his famous 1998 study linking the MMR vaccine and autism is shocking. But it’s old news that the study was not a good study. A year ago, The Lancet retracted it. And even before that, nobody had been able to replicate it, and many studies contradicted it.

Yet some people still want to believe the study. This is really frustrating to me.

I’m not frustrated because people want to believe Dr. Wakefield’s idea. We don’t know what causes autism. Hopefully we will soon, but until then any idea is open for discussion and investigation. What frustrates me is that even before these revelations, it was clear that the study was flawed. The study isn’t good science; it doesn’t show anything, let alone prove anything. Nevertheless, people have made decisions about immunizing their children based on it. That is really frustrating, especially when there is so much good science to show that vaccines don’t cause autism—and do save lives. Full story »

Leave a comment

British Medical Journal further discredits doctor who claims autism linked to MMR vaccination

by Tripp Underwood on January 6, 2011

As you may have heard on the news this morning, the British Medical Journal further discredited the research of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, an English doctor whose work attempts to link autism to vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella. Wakefield’s data and research practices have been questioned in the past, (he was barred from practicing medicine in the U.K. by the country’s General Medical Council in May) but two new articles from the BMJ go as far as to claim that his research was not only incorrect, but purposely falsified, possibly for financial gain.

Yesterday’s article and accompanying editorial will be the first in a series stating that Wakefield either misrepresented or altered information in his study of 12 children, whose autism he claims was linked to vaccination. According to the article’s author Brian Deer, the series will “expose the bogus data behind claims that launched a worldwide scare over the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and reveals how the appearance of a link with autism was manufactured at a London medical school.”

Since 2004 Deer has been publishing stories discrediting Wakefield’s findings on the dangers of MMR vaccination, and now accuses the doctor of purposely submitting falsified data to prove his theories. A separate BMJ editorial written about Wakefield calls his work “an elaborate fraud.”

Leonard Rappaport MD, MS and chief of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Division of Developmental Medicine, has this to say about Wakefield’s work: Full story »

Leave a comment

Autism documentary features experts from Children’s

by Tripp Underwood on September 27, 2010

Sara Lee Kessler looks at autism and its treatment at Children's

Tonight at 9 pm, NJN, New Jersey’s Public Broadcast station, will air Decoding Autism, an hour-long documentary with Emmy Award-winning journalist Sara Lee Kessler. The documentary highlights the efforts of various institutions to better understand the cause of autism, as well as improve its diagnosis and treatment.

Their efforts couldn’t come at a more crucial time. This year more children will be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder than with childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined.

Several of Children’s Hospital Boston’s autism experts are featured in the documentary, as well as the Montani family, who have been participating in a Children’s program studying the younger siblings of children with autism. It is believed the data could be used to improve early detection of autism, and lead to earlier treatment.

For those of us not based in New Jersey, the full program will be streaming on NJN’s website tonight at 9 as well. Tune in on TV or head to the website for a fascinating look at autism and its treatment here at Children’s.

Leave a comment

Going gluten-free

by Steve Coldwell on August 12, 2010

People with celiac disease need to eat a gluten free diet, but why are other consumers joing them?

People with celiac disease need to eat a gluten-free diet, but why are other consumers joining them?

The Hannaford store in Portland Maine recently expanded its Nature Place department –which used to include but a few shelves of gluten-free products– to a 40-foot area stocked with more than 500 items ranging from cookies to pasta sauce, all of them free of the protein that can pose real problems for people with celiac disease.

Oddly enough, the celiac disease population—the people who genuinely need gluten-free food—seem to have little to do with the current boom in gluten-free products.

Full story »

Leave a comment