December 06, 2021
Community Shares:
- A clinical trial of the highly anticipated autism treatment drug, PAX-101 (also known as Suramin), shows that dose matters. In the trial, boys with autism who received 10 mg/kg of the drug via infusion experienced greater improvements in symptoms than those who received 20 mg/kg of the drug or placebo. PAX-101 is an antipurinergic therapy delivered once monthly via an IV infusion. The medication appears to reverse the effects of mitochondrial dysfunction, which has been linked to the cause of autism spectrum disorder symptoms. The drug may also lower the amount of neuroinflammation in children.
- A recent report examined IQ scores of individuals with autism. The study found that nearly half of the participants with ASD had an average or higher IQ. Boys on the spectrum were more likely to have an average or higher IQ than girls. The researchers also discovered that individuals with ASD and higher IQ are more likely to be at risk of not being diagnosed.
- A new study examined the implementation of universal suicide risk screening in pediatric neurodevelopmental disability medical clinics. The screening was designed to analyze demographic and clinical characteristics of eligible patients, describe outcomes of positive screenings and detail factors that influenced participation in those screenings. The study concluded that routine screening for suicide risk and referrals to mental health care for adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders are feasible. Clinics who served children with autism had the highest rate of positive screenings compared to other clinics serving those with other neurodevelopmental disorders. Sadly, suicide risk screenings were declined by parents 26% of the time.
- New research shows that children with autism are receiving their first diagnosis, intervention plans and developmental services at younger ages than in the past. A growing number of children are receiving an ASD diagnosis before the age of 3. These findings come from the National Survey of Children’s Health which included data from 2303 children with autism aged 2 to 17 years.
- The New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence is hosting a free webinar on December 9 at 10:00 a.m. EST. The webinar, Relational Mechanisms of Social Disability in Autism, looks at the benefit of implementing more ecological assessments of autistic social abilities and describes how differences in the social preferences, expectations, communications styles between people with and without autism may contribute to social disability in the disorder.
