Yesterday saw the release of the serious case review relating to the appalling treatment of people at the Winterbourne View care home, as exposed in the BBC Panorama programme last year. The review, chaired by Margaret Flynn, points to a lack of leadership amongst commissioners, as well as criticising the role of the Care Quality [read the full story…]
The possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been shown to have no basis in evidence, despite such a link being posited in a 1998 paper in the Lancet. The paper was subsequently retracted following a GMC investigation of its author. The researchers in this US study point out that although the link [read the full story…]
Self injurious behaviour is usually defined as behaviour that directly results in physical harm to an individual and includes such behaviours as hand biting, head slapping, picking at skin, gouging or striking the body or eating inedible material. In addition, researchers have begun to include display of repetitive movements even though they may not immediately [read the full story…]
Previous research has suggested that the likelihood of experiencing mental health problems is increased in children and young people with learning disabilities if they also have autism. The researchers in this study were interested in looking at symptoms of anxiety in this population, hypothesising that they may experience symptoms of anxiety at a greater level [read the full story…]
The Autism Strategy Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives was published in 2010. The strategy is for England only, but the authors of this general review suggest that a detailed look at the strategy will be of interest across the UK. The strategy was published following a commitment made in the Autism Act 2009. It sets out [read the full story…]
In 1998 a very small study was published, involving just 3 children with autism, who were treated with a hormone called secretin that controls digestion. Here’s the abstract of the study by Horvath et al: We report three children with autistic spectrum disorders who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and intravenous administration of secretin to stimulate [read the full story…]
The researchers in this study were interested in looking at differences in physiological arousal between infants and toddlers with fragile X syndrome and those with typical development. They looked at physiological predictors early in development to autism severity later in development in fragile X syndrome. Participants were 31 male children with fragile X syndrome aged [read the full story…]
Previous studies trying to reach an understanding of the rate of co-morbid psychiatric problems in children with autism spectrum disorders have reported significantly varying findings. The authors of this matched control study wanted to look at patterns of co-morbid psychiatric problems in such and their parents compared a group of controls matched for IQ, and [read the full story…]
Rett syndrome is a neurological disorder mainly affecting females which although present from birth, may remain undetected until around one year of age. Many people with Rett syndrome have a mutation on the MECP2 gene on the X chromosome. The authors of this study were interested in describing the Rett syndrome behavioural phenotype by using [read the full story…]
Adults with severe learning disability also have a greater likelihood of having autism according to a new report published by the NHS Information Centre. The report combines data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2007 with findings from a new study based on a sample of people with learning disabilities living in private households [read the full story…]
