Research Study Findings

General Research

    Low birthweight infants have five times rate of autism ~ The children, some

    born as small as about a pound, were followed for 21 years making this study,

    published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, one of the most remarkable of

    its kind. The infants were born between September 1984 through July 1987 in

    Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties in New Jersey at birthweights from

    500 to 2000 grams or a maximum of about 4.4 pounds.

   New Findings Validate the Accuracy of Autism Diagnosis in Children With 

   Down Syndrome ~  New findings from a 16-year study confirm that the  

   Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the gold-standard  

   for the classification of mental health conditions, can be used to accurately

   identify autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children with Down syndrome,

   according to research from Kennedy Krieger Institute.~ October 2011

   Autism Research:Breakthrough Discovery on the Causes of Autism~ 

    researchers at the University of California, Davis called "Mitochondrial

    Dysfunctionin Autism  (i) discovered a profound and serious biological

    underpinning of autism-an acquired loss of the ability to produce energy in the

    cells, damage to mitochondria (the energy factories in your cells), an increase

    in oxidative stress(the same chemical reaction that causes cars to rust,apples

    turning brown,fat to become rancid,skin to wrinkle).~ December 2010

   Genes implicated in twins' autism - baltimoresun.com ~Autism could have

    100 different causes," says Kennedy Krieger neuroscientist Jonathan Pevsner,

     who's encouraged by DNA sequencing studies of autistic patients' genomes.

     ~ January 2010

Variability in outcome for children with an ASD diagnosis at age 2 ~Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2007

Social and communication development in toddlers with early and later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders ~ Archives of General Psychiatry. 2007

Early social-communicative and cognitive development of younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders ~ Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2007

Associated medical disorders and disabilities in children with autistic disorder: a population-based study ~ Autism, 2004                                                                                            

Adult Outcome for Children with Autism ~ Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2004  

New AAP Reports Help Pediatricians Identify and Manage Autism Earlier

~ American Academy of Pediatrics ~ Two new clinical reports from the

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will help pediatricians recognize autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) earlier and guide families to effective

interventions, which will ultimately improve the lives of children with ASDs

and their families.

Autism - Cutting Edge Discoveries ~ Dr. Roger L. Turner, DC ~ Do you feel

there must be an answer to the causes of Autism? Would you like to hear about “the cause” missed by most treatment protocols? A cutting edge protocol has been discovered that addresses the main causative factor in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) that almost all disciplines have missed in their treatment protocols.

Service Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Benefits,   

Challenges and Welfare Implications ~ a qualitative investigation of the benefits, challenges and welfare of service dogs for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families.

Twin Autism Study ~An exciting study for autism that started as a mothers

means to document her twin's development and milestones for their albums.  The mother is also the founder and president of the Canadian National Autism Foudation ~ 2005

Children and Youth with Special Needs ~ A Report by the Canadian Council on Social Development

Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) ~ National Institute of Mental Health ~ 2004

Clinical Trials: Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) ~ National Insitute of Mental Health

A Case Study in the Misrepresentation of Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism: The Gernsbacher Lectures ~This article presents a case study in the misrepresentation of applied behavior analysis for autism based on Morton Ann Gernsbacher's presentation of a lecture titled “The Science of Autism: Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions.” Her misrepresentations involve the characterization of applied behavior analysis, descriptions of practice guidelines, reviews of the treatment literature, presentations of the clinical trials research, and conclusions about those trials ~Spring 2009

Genetic Research

    Israeli and NY researchers find evidence autism genetic ~ A team at Cold  

    Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, led by an Israeli doing

    postdoctoral fellowship work on mice, has for the first time provided

    functional evidence that inheriting fewer copies of genes on chromosome

    #16 leads to autism-like features.  ~ Oct 2011

   Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism ~  researchers from the University

     of California ~ Dec 2010       

Canadian Scientists Lead International Autism Genome Discoveries ~ Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto

Offord Centre Leads Discovery of Genes Believed to Contribute to Autism ~ Offord Centre for Child Studies, Hamilton

Mapping the Genes for Autism: Canadian Study Part of Worldwide Effort ~ Offord Centre for Child Studies, Hamilton

Autism Research at the Duke Center for Human Genetics ~ abstracts to a

number of different studies being conducted at Duke

Complex Gene Interactions Account for Autism Risk ~ Duke University Medical Centre ~ August 2005

Project to Search for Autism Gene ~ BBC News ~ July 2004

New Genetic Hypothesis for the Cause of Autism ~ American Journal of Genetics ~ September 8, 2004

Researchers Identify First Gene Variant That Appears To Increase Risk Of Autism In Significant Portion Of The Population ~ American Journal of Psychiatry ~ April 2004

Autism Gene ~ from a study at Columbia University Medical Centre ~ January 2004

The Origins of Autism ~ New research into the causes of this baffling

disorder is focusing on genes that control the development of the brain ~

Scientific American ~ February 2000

Vaccine Research

    Medical fraud revealed in discredited vaccine-autism study ~ In 2004,

    Brian Deer of The Sunday Times published damning evidence about Dr.

    Wakefield’s ties to the lawsuit, showing that the children in the study were

    recruited unethically, and exposing other flaws in the published study.  

   ~January 2011

   Autism-vaccine study retracted ~A medical journal in Britain has retracted

    a controversial study about the MMR it published in 1998 that linked the use of

    a vaccine in children to autism. ~  February 2010

   Vaccines cause autism: Supporting evidence ~ Rates of autism have

    skyrocketed 1000% since 1990, yet defenders of vaccines and the

    pharmaceutical industry keep scratching their heads in confusion: What could

    be causing this? Lots of clues point to vaccines as one of the primary

    contributing factors to increased rates of autism.~ October 2009

Mac Experts Dispute Link Between Autism, Vaccines The Hamilton Spectator ~ Saturday, February 2, 2004

Brain Research

     Autism And Early Childhood Rapid Growth May Be Linked, New Study 

     Shows ~ suggests the mechanisms behind rapid brain growth in autistic

     infants are related to broader neuronal and musculoskeletal abnormalities.

     Rapid growth in head size, weight and height may be linked with autism

     development in baby boys.~ October 2011

Interview with Dr. Dan Rossignol: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Symptoms in Autistic Children ~ Medical Veritas (3), 2006

Study Provides Evidence That Autism Affects Functioning of Entire Brain
Previous View Held Autism Limited to Communication, Social Behavior, and Reasoning ~ released August 2006

Major Brain Structures Implicated in Autism

UCSD Researchers Find Brain Overgrowth During First Year of Life in Autism ~ University of California, San Diego ~ July 2003

Could a Big Head Mean Autism? ~ An accelerated rate of brain growth in infants may be an early warning sign of risk for autism ~ The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) ~ July 2003

Clues to Autisms Neural Basis ~ International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences ~ 2000

Other Interesting Research

Facing off against autism; Can a computer game help autistic children recognize faces and expressions? ~ Dr. Jim Tanaka, a UVic cognitive neuroscientist, has developed a computer game that may improve the face-processing abilities of children with autism