January 08, 2024
- Prominent autism researcher Dr. Robert Naviaux and his colleagues from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a connection between cellular metabolism and depression. Analyzing blood samples from 99 participants with treatment-resistant depression and suicidal thoughts, the study found specific compounds that could serve as biomarkers for identifying those at higher suicide risk. Sex-based differences in how depression affects cell metabolism were also observed. The study highlights the potential for personalized mental health care by uncovering metabolic differences and common factors like mitochondrial dysfunction. The identification of five biomarkers for each sex could aid in diagnosing and stratifying individuals at risk, potentially paving the way for targeted interventions and drug development to address metabolic deficiencies associated with depression.
- A research team from the UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry has discovered a potential early marker for autism in infants. Their new study focused on infants at a higher risk for developing autism due to having older siblings with the condition. The researchers found that infants with abnormally enlarged perivascular spaces in the brain, through which cerebrospinal fluid flows to flush out neuroinflammation, have a 2.2 times greater chance of developing autism. This research followed infants from 6-24 months of age and found that 30% of those later diagnosed with autism had enlarged perivascular spaces by 12 months, and nearly half had them by 24 months. The study also revealed an association between enlarged perivascular spaces at two years of age and higher rates of sleep disturbances at school age. The authors suggest that monitoring these brain abnormalities in infancy may have clinical relevance and highlight the potential long-term effects of perivascular spaces on brain development.
- A new study has used machine learning and a motor coloring game on a smart tablet to differentiate the gameplay of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and typically developing (TD) children. Traditional behavioral motor measures and video coding analysis were unable to distinguish between ASD and DCD groups. However, machine learning, coupled with kinematics recorded from the smart tablet game, achieved accuracy rates of 76% for distinguishing ASD from TD, 71% for ASD from DCD, and 78% for DCD from TD. This research also identified control of deceleration and variability in the distance of motor gestures as key kinematic markers that differentiate clinical groups. Additionally, cerebellar regions associated with ASD and DCD showed significant relationships with kinematic features from the smart tablet data, suggesting a connection between neural activity and motor behaviors.
- In response to a 2021 federal lawsuit, the Social Security Administration has agreed to a nationwide settlement that will bring relief to over 2 million Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients, many with disabilities, who had their benefits reduced or discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. The settlement, known as Campos v. Kijakazi, involves the automatic waiver of many overpayments that occurred between March and September 2020. The agency will also issue refunds to individuals who have already repaid the funds, and remedies are available for those with benefit overpayments as recent as April 2023. The class-action suit accused the Social Security Administration of wrongly cutting off SSI benefits during the pandemic, alleging that beneficiaries were penalized due to the agency’s suspension of paperwork processing and field office closures. The settlement is expected to credit benefits back to nearly a quarter million SSI recipients automatically, and the agency will issue guidance considering COVID-19-related circumstances when assessing overpayments between March 2020 and April 2023. The settlement is seen as crucial relief for SSI recipients recovering from pandemic-related challenges.
