Autism Genes Believed on Chromosome 11

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Back to the drawing board...

EPA must rewrite utility mercury rule: US court
Fri Feb 8, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for environmentalists and a setback for big U.S. coal-burning utilities, a federal court ruled on Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency must fundamentally rework its mercury rules for utilities.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in 2005 when it exempted coal plants from the strictest emission controls for mercury and other toxic substances like arsenic, lead and nickel. The EPA's "Clean Air Mercury Rule" would have created a "cap-and-trade" program to allow utilities to swap rights to emit mercury to comply with overall limits that would reduce nationwide emissions by 70 percent by 2018.

Some 14 states, including New York and California, sued the EPA over the rules, along with environmental and public health groups. The court ruling means that big coal-burning utilities like Atlanta-based Southern Co and American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, will have to install expensive mercury-reduction equipment at more of their power plants rather than rely on a fleet-wide trading program.

The ruling adds to the U.S. backlash against building coal-fired power plants, which are also a major source of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions. Wall Street banks including Citigroup Inc, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley this week issued standards that weigh carbon dioxide and mercury emissions when determining whether to lend money for new power plants.

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Autistic 13-year-old explains her feelings and behavior in words...

Autism Breakthrough: Girl's Writings Provide 'Remarkable Insight' on Disorder
Feb. 19, 2008 - Doctors Amazed by Carly Fleishman's Ability to Describe the Disorder From the Inside

Carly Fleischman has severe autism and is unable to speak a word. But thanks to years of expensive and intensive therapy, this 13-year-old has made a remarkable breakthrough. Two years ago, working with pictures and symbols on a computer keyboard, she started typing and spelling out words. The computer became her voice. "All of a sudden these words started to pour out of her, and it was an exciting moment because we didn't realize she had all these words," said speech pathologist Barbara Nash. "It was one of those moments in my career that I'll never forget."

Then Carly began opening up, describing what it was like to have autism and why she makes odd noises or why she hits herself. "It feels like my legs are on first and a million ants are crawling up my arms," Carly said through the computer. Carly writes about her frustrations with her siblings, how she understands their jokes and asks when can she go on a date. "We were stunned," Carly's father Arthur Fleischmann said. "We realized inside was an articulate, intelligent, emotive person that we had never met. This was unbelievable because it opened up a whole new way of looking at her." This is what Carly wants people to know about autism.

"It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't talk or I act differently than them. I think people get scared with things that look or seem different than them." "Laypeople would have assumed she was mentally retarded or cognitively impaired. Even professionals labelled her as moderately to severely cognitively impaired. In the old days you would say mentally retarded, which means low IQ and low promise and low potential," Arthur Fleischman said. Therapists say the key lesson from Carly's story is for families to never give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice.

More ABC News: Autism Breakthrough: Girl's Writings Provide 'Remarkable Insight' on Disorder

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Deaf Actress to 'Dance With the Stars'
Feb. 19, 2008 - Marlee Matlin joins "Dancing With the Stars," raising awareness -- and questions

Marlee Matlin — the Oscar-winning actress who has also starred in television shows from "West Wing" to "The L Word" — will join the new season of "Dancing With the Stars." Matlin's selection is a breakthrough for the hearing impaired, who say they are more often stigmatized by misconceptions than by their own limitations.

"I love to watch the program even though I don't have the volume on," wrote Lori DiWindt, who is deaf and grew up with deaf parents. "It is inspiring to see different people compete given their backgrounds," said DiWindt, who is a mental health therapist at the Deaf and Wellness Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "It's nice to see that Marlee is up to the challenge."

Experts say learning to dance requires all the senses — not just hearing, but sight, touch and rhythm. Dance troupes at two of the largest universities that serve the deaf — Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. and Rochester Institute for Technology in New York — have been thriving for decades, performing to music for both hearing and nonhearing audiences.

30 Million Are Deaf

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Feds concede vaccine worsened girl's condition...

Government concedes vaccine injury case
Wed., March. 5, 2008 - Shots worsened girl’s rare condition, leading to autism-like symptoms

Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund. Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably make the case an exception — not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims.

The government "has not conceded that vaccines cause autism," said Linda Renzi, the lawyer representing federal officials, who have consistently maintained that childhood shots are safe. However, parents and advocates for autistic children see the case as a victory that may help certain others. Although the science on this is very limited, the girl's disorder may be more common in autistic children than in healthy ones.

"It's a beginning," said Kevin Conway, a Boston lawyer representing more than 1,200 families with vaccine injury claims. "Each case is going to have to be proved on its individual merits. But it shows to me that the government has conceded that it's biologically plausible for a vaccine to cause these injuries. They've never done it before." A lawyer for the 9-year-old girl has scheduled a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday. Her parents have declined to comment in the meantime because the case is not final and the payment amount has not been set.

Nearly 5,000 families are seeking compensation for autism or other developmental disabilities they blame on vaccines and a mercury-based preservative, thimerosal. It once was commonly used to prevent bacterial contamination but since 2001 has been used only in certain flu shots. Some cases contend that the cumulative effect of many shots given at once may have caused injuries.

More Government concedes vaccine injury case - Mental health - MSNBC.com

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Autism-vaccine link unproven...

Analysis: Vaccine-Autism Link Unproven
- For those convinced that vaccines can cause autism, the sad case of a Georgia girl, daughter of a doctor and lawyer, seems like clear-cut evidence.

The government has agreed to pay the girl's family for injury caused by vaccines. But it turns out it's not that simple — and maybe not even a first. The 9-year-old girl, Hannah Poling, had an underlying condition that may have been worsened, triggering her autism-like symptoms. Her parents believe it was the five simultaneous vaccines she got as a toddler in one day eight years ago that did it. Government scientists say something like a fever or infection could have set off the problem — but they didn't rule out the vaccines either.

This week, government officials said they have agreed to pay the Polings from a federal fund that compensates people injured by vaccines. The amount is not yet determined. While parents and advocates for autistic children say the case is a landmark legal precedent that signals the government is finally conceding potential autism-related risks from childhood vaccines, government officials are saying it's nothing of the kind. "This does not represent anything other than a very special situation," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Her comments came after the Polings, from Athens, Ga., held a news conference Thursday to talk about their daughter, who accompanied them. At the briefing, Hannah seemed socially engaged with her caregiver, but later in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," she was quiet and seemed to be in her own world. As a toddler, they said she was a bright, normal-behaving child until she got five shots when she was about 18 months old. She was a little behind on her vaccinations, so the decision was made to give her five shots.

Almost immediately after, she was screaming, feverish and irritable. Then, her behavior gradually changed so she would stare at fans and lights and run in circles. "It wasn't like a switch being turned off. It was more like a dimmer switch being turned down," said Hannah's father, Jon, a 37-year-old neurologist. It was heartbreaking, said her 47-year-old mother, Terry, who is trained as both a lawyer and a nurse. "Suddenly my daughter was no longer there," she said. The family filed a claim with the federal vaccine compensation program in 2002, which the government ultimately decided to concede before any evidentiary hearing.

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Autism fact vs. fiction...

Mysteries and Complications
Mar 24, 2008 Issue : Autism is everywhere—once again. Separating fact from fear as the courts and Hollywood wade in.

You wonder what he thinks. The little boy who flaps his arms and bangs his head. Who bristles at the touch of wool and covers his ears when balloons go "pop!" The boy who doesn't respond to his name and will never say "I love you." What does he think of the world outside? The busy world of childhood vaccines, celebrity fund-raising and genetic research. The cauldron of medicine, media, politics and the law. What does he think of autism? For that matter, what are we to think? Passions about autism are running higher than ever, and for good reason. Autism spectrum disorders affect one in 150 kids from all walks of life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a tenfold jump in just the past decade. As the numbers grow, public awareness increases and the fervor surrounding each new development intensifies.

Earlier this month, after the federal government said vaccines aggravated an underlying disorder that led to autism-like symptoms in 9-year-old Hannah Poling, the longstanding controversy over the role of childhood vaccines flared anew on network newscasts, the Internet and talk radio. The culture of autism is hitting prime time, too. Next week HBO will air "Autism: The Musical," a documentary about five children with autism who perform in their own show. A week later, Sundance Channel will broadcast "Autism Every Day," a film laying out the challenges faced by families. April 2 marks the first World Autism Awareness Day, a global effort voted into existence by the U.N. General Assembly. Less than two weeks after that, Jon Stewart will host an autism fund-raiser at New York's Beacon Theater, to be aired live on Comedy Central. Among the glittery lineup: Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien.

Despite its high profile, however, autism is one of the most complicated neurological disorders known. Some of the people on "the spectrum" attend college; others never speak an intelligible word. Its complexity, in fact, is what has fueled the ongoing vaccine debate and caused divisions within the "autism community." Unlike most conditions that attract popular and celebrity support—breast cancer, AIDS—autism is almost a complete mystery, with no known cause. The vacuum created by this lack of knowledge has been filled with the theories, worries and frustrations of desperate parents. It's hard not to want something, or somebody, to blame. But now, as the spotlight glares again, it's time to separate fact from fear, to strive for perspective and clarity over emotion, to define the true scope of the disorder.

More Mysteries and Complications | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com

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Insurance vs. Autism: The Problem of Costly Care...

For Parents, Insurance Is a Personal Fight
March 24, 2008 - Insurance Companies Struggle, Parents Sacrifice to Cover Expensive Behavioral Therapy

Looking someone in the eye, waving goodbye, or speaking a single word may seem simple to the average person. But an autistic child may have to sit in a chair for eight hours a day, learning these tasks through painstaking repetition called Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. ABA therapy can cost up to a $100,000 a year, which is why it's a breakthrough that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed House bill 2847 into law, forcing insurance providers to cover the costs of the treatment.

Mandated insurance coverage for autism treatment is, generally, nothing new. Roughly half the states do that to varying degrees. What's new is requiring coverage for ABA therapy, with its intimidating price tag. The expense is so steep that the bill was lobbied against by business, in general, and the insurance industry, in particular, which argued that such mandated coverage gets passed along as higher insurance premiums for everyone. "The weight of all of these mandates has made it much more difficult for employers and consumers to afford coverage for health care," Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for the American Association of Health Plans, said.

"The way it plays out in the real world is that, if a mandate passes, an employer has to pick that cost up — in the form of higher premiums — and many times, what then happens is, that cost will need to be passed on to the individual employee." But Lisa Parles, whose 17-year-old son Andrew has been in ABA therapy — without insurance — since the age of 3, argues the skills he's learning will save society some of the cost of care he'll need as an adult. Parles gave up her law practice to move to a state that pays for treatment.

More ABC News: Insurance vs. Autism: The Problem of Costly Care

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Dogs help autistic children...

Service Dogs May Help Autistic Children
April 1, 2008 - Many Parents Who Spoke to ABC News Raved About Their Experience With the Dog Therapy

On Matthew Plunk's third birthday, his parents, Jeff and Jennifer, received some life-changing news: Their son had autism. The diagnosis came as no surprise to the Plunks, who had long struggled to contain their son's emotional outbursts and antisocial behaviors. "He had a lot of fears," said Jennifer. "Just a truck going by would make him want to climb up you."

After years of trying different therapies and experimental diets for Matthew, the Plunks noticed he had made significant progress but still suffered from intense anxiety and difficulty interacting with strangers. "The biggest thing I was looking for [was] a calmness for Matthew," said Jennifer. "His mind is just going 90 miles an hour. It's like his foot is always on the gas pedal."

So when Matthew was 6, Jennifer went online in search of something else she hoped could help him -- a dog. She had heard about service dogs specially trained to work with children with autism so she researched a program that would help her find a canine companion for Matthew.

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Households with kids with autism likely to earn less
April 2, 2008 - New research suggests that the average household with children with autism not only spends thousands of dollars toward educational, behavioral and health care expenses each year, but also suffers from a lesser-known cost that hits them up front – a sizeable chunk of missed household income, perhaps as much as $6,200 annually.

The study, published in April’s edition of Pediatrics, paints a more detailed financial picture of how expensive life can become for parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder.

“To our knowledge, this is the first U.S. study that examines this front half of the ‘money in, money out’ equation,” said economist Guillermo Montes, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a senior researcher at the Children’s Institute, a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the University of Rochester, where he also serves as a faculty member in the division of General Pediatrics. “To collect data on expenses is fairly straightforward– it’s a survey report. But projecting earning potential and then stacking that against actual income requires complex statistical modeling.”

The study is based on data from the National Household Education Survey on After School Programs and Activities in 2005, a telephone questionnaire that drew on parents of more than 11,000 children, kindergarten-age through eighth grade. Parents reported if their child had an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD (that is, if he or she had ever been diagnosed with autism or a pervasive developmental disorder), their total household income and their highest level of education. Several other demographic details were collected, including the parent’s age, type of family (two parent or otherwise) and whether they lived in an urban or rural locale.

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Preemies May Face Higher Autism Risk

Study Links Preemies With Autism Signs
Apr 2, 2008 - High Rate of Autism Signs Found in Children Born Extremely Prematurely, Researchers Find

A small study of toddlers finds that about one-quarter of babies born very prematurely had signs of autism on an early screening test. The research is preliminary since formal autism testing wasn't done. But the results are provocative, suggesting that tiny preemies may face greater risks of developing autism than previously thought.

That suggests autism may be an under-appreciated consequence of medical advances enabling the tiniest of premature babies to survive, said lead author Catherine Limperopoulos, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal and Children's Hospital in Boston. She emphasized that the results don't mean extreme prematurity causes autism, but rather that it might be among contributing factors.

The risks associated with being born way too early have mostly been thought of as "neuromuscular, causing damage like cerebral palsy, and cognitive, like mental retardation," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director at the March of Dimes. "The study says there are also social and behavioral consequences which look like autism," Fleischman said. And he said it underscores a need for early autism screening among youngsters born very prematurely. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends autism screening for all children by age 2. Autism can't be cured but early behavior therapy can help lessen its severity.

More ABC News: Preemies May Face Higher Autism Risk

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Genetic autism discovery...

Gene may link autism to muscle disorder
Sun., April. 13, 2008 - Finding could open new avenues of research into condition's cause

U.S. researchers have found a genetic link between autism and a muscle-weakening disorder known as mitochondrial disease, they said on Sunday, in a finding that may open new avenues of research into the causes of autism. “Recent studies have suggested that as many 20 percent of patients with autism have markers for mitochondrial disease,” said Dr. John Shoffner, a neurologist and geneticist at Medical Neurogenetics in Atlanta, who presented his findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago. “There has really not been much work done so far to push that issue,” Shoffner said in a telephone interview.

Mitochondrial diseases are a set of genetic disorders in which energy-producing structures in cells are impaired. The disease is often triggered by an illness, such as a high fever, which can result in severe muscle weakening. Shoffner wanted to see if he could identify the underlying genetic mechanisms that might explain this link. He evaluated genetic samples and clinical information gathered on 37 children diagnosed with autism who had been evaluated at his clinic for mitochondrial disease.

They found more than 60 percent of these children had mitochondrial defects. Shoffner said the finding needs to be confirmed in other studies, but it does help to validate the hypothesis of a link between the two conditions in a subset of patients. “This is a fundamental first step,” Shoffner said in a telephone interview. “This gives us a great foothold for moving forward with this population — asking better, more precise questions.”

Georgia case Gene may link autism to muscle disorder - Mental health - MSNBC.com

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Vaccine opponents to have their say...

Families make case for vaccine link to autism
Sun., May. 11, 2008 WASHINGTON - Attorneys to argue in federal court that thimerosal triggers disorder

Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court. They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.

Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as the test cases that determine whether the children and their families should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally. But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress and show symptoms of autism.

Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except the flu shot. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.

Thimerosal theory