Free Republic

At a time when election officials are struggling to convince more Americans to vote, advocates for the disabled say thousands of people with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other intellectual or developmental disabilities have been systematically denied that basic right in the nation’s largest county. A Voting Rights Act complaint to be filed Thursday with the U.S. Justice Department goes to a politically delicate subject that states have grappled with over the years: Where is the line to disqualify someone from the voting booth because of a cognitive or developmental impairment? The complaint by the Disability and Abuse Project...

The Maryland teen who admitted to torturing an autistic boy while and filming the abuse has been sent to a juvenile facility where she'll stay for up to four years. Lauren Bush, 17, pleaded guilty in juvenile court last month to distribution of an obscene video and second-degree assault. Under her sentence, she'll be released before she turns 21, NBC Washington reported. Her case was moved from an adult court — where she faced up to 80 years in prison — to the juvenile system. The lighter sentence outraged the victim's father, who wanted the high school junior punished as...

In the study, researchers administered a dose of suramin to 25 male mice, whereas another 25 males received a saline injection instead. All mice were "maternal immune activation mouse models," meaning animals that exhibit autism-like behaviors following a virus infection in their mothers during pregnancy. This single dose, the researchers report, corrected the social behaviors seen in autism spectrum disorder. The mice, for instance, spent more time interacting with both mice and objects they had never interacted with before, compared to those injected with a saline solution. The benefits lasted for five weeks after the drug was washed out of...

Exposure to environmental pollution may cause brain changes that make people more vulnerable to developing autism or schizophrenia, according to a new study published in Environmental Heath Perspectives. This research falls in line with a 2013 study published in JAMA Psychiatry, which demonstrated an epidemiological link between pollution and autism; the researchers found that children who lived in areas with high levels of traffic pollution seemed to be more likely to be diagnosed with the neurodevelopmental disorder. […] While most research on pollution focuses on large-particle pollution—the only type monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—this research focused on the...

RICHMOND (KPIX) — A father followed his 9-year-old autistic son onto the school bus Friday morning and attacked his son’s bully, said Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan. Burnis Hurd, 44, is charged with 273 D, which is child abuse and corporal injury to a child. He is in jail on $50,000 bond. After they boarded the bus, the son pointed out an 11 year old boy who had been bullying the 9-year old, Gagan said.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)COVINGTON, La. —A Covington teen with autism is recovering in the hospital after he was knocked out in what some people call the "knockout game." The boy was struck so hard his jaw was broken in two places and he underwent surgery. "He has autism he would never hurt anybody," said a Covington mother who did not want to be identified. The woman believes her son was the victim of the knockout game. The 17-year-old is still recovering from a blow he never saw coming. "They cannot think that its OK, because it's not, and I don't want them to...

We don’t have a gun problem in this country. We have a brain problem. And it is going to get worse. After reading just some of this killer’s autobiography, only up to age 12, I am starting to believe that we need to STOP MAINSTREAMING kids with asperger’s or highly functioning autism. And I have a son with it, same age as this guy. His childhood parallels my son’s except: I DIDNT FORCE HIM INTO SCHOOL. By 4th grade he was homeschooled all the way through. You will not see my son in the news for killing people. First, the...

The killers online manifesto. He wanted to kill a year ago.

MRI images from a neurotypical control (left) and an adult with complete agenesis of the corpus callosum (right). The corpus callosum is indicated in red, fading as the fibers enter the hemispheres in order to suggest that they continue on. The anterior commissure is indicated by light aqua. The image illustrates the dramatic lack of inter hemispheric connections in callosal agenesis. Credit: Lynn Paul/Caltech (Medical Xpress)—Building on their prior work, a team of neuroscientists at Caltech now report that rare patients who are missing connections between the left and right sides of their brain—a condition known as agenesis of...

...'forced him into a dog cage and poured syrup and kitty litter over him' A six-year-old boy whose mother forced him into a dog cage then poured syrup and kitty litter on him was rescued after neighbors heard him screaming, 'Do you love me?' to his abuser, authorities said. The boy's mother, Crystal Jean Hostetter, 24, and her long-term girlfriend, Sarah Elizabeth McClain, 30, allegedly abused the boy - who has psychological issues and does not like sticky substances - for two hours on Saturday. Neighbors witnessed the treatment and alerted authorities. The two women, from Douglasville, Georgia, appeared in...

Researchers say stem cells could lead them to the right drug to treat autismUC San Diego scientists say they've made a breakthrough in autism research. Researchers found using stem cells can help them find the right drug to treat the disorder. NBC 7's Liberty Zabala explains how the research could one day lead to a cure. Autistic stem cells are starting respond to experimental drugs in what San Diego researchers are calling a breakthrough in the disorder affecting one in 68 children. UC San Diego scientists took stem cells from children with autism and reprogrammed them into brain cells. “It...

Children with autism relieved of symptoms following therapy that includes camel milkDubai: Can camel milk help children with autism? Two American mothers who sourced camel milk from the Middle East say it definitely can, citing circumstantial evidence of their children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) responding positively after therapy that included camel milk. Author Christina Adams shared her camel milk story with XPRESS following a meet-up organised by Autism UAE, Stepping Stones, Child EIMC and Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products (EICMP) at The Majlis Dubai, a new camel milk cafe next to Jumeirah Mosque. American-born Zeba Khan,...

A new Johns Hopkins study discovers an association between prenatal exposure to antidepressant medications, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and developmental delays (DD) in boys. Researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health found that early prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — commonly prescribed for depression, anxiety, and other disorders — increased the risk for ASD three-fold. Common SSRIs include citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva), and sertraline (Zoloft). The study of 1,000 mother-child pairs is published in the online edition of Pediatrics. In the study, investigators analyzed data from large samples of ASD and...

The Israeli army has formed a specialized intelligence unit that includes soldiers diagnosed with autism, a neurological disorder involving impaired social interaction and communication problems. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman’s office said that the autistic soldiers have remarkable visual and analytic capabilities. “They can detect even the smallest details, undetectable to most people,” it said in a press release. The commander of the unit, identified only as “Col. J,” said that the success of the program exceeded all expectations. “Their job is to take visual materials from satellite images and airborne sensors,” he said. “With the help of their...

'1st trimester SSRI exposure was associated with more than a 300% increased risk' ... At the same time, 11 percent of all Americans 12-and-over are taking SSRI antidepressants, including an astonishing 23 percent – almost one in four – of women in their 40s and 50s, and between 7 and 13 percent of all pregnant women in the U.S. ... Specifically, the research team determined that male children with autism disorders were almost three times as likely to have experienced prenatal exposure to antidepressants, when compared with boys with normal development. The finding regarding autistic boys was even more pronounced...

Josephine “Joey” Gay was one of 20 children and six adults killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012. “You have two choices,” said Bob Gay, Joey’s father and a 1978 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson. “You can choose love or you can go another way. Knowing my daughter, choosing love was the only way.” The 7-year-old will be honored at the second annual Joey’s Purple Ball June 14 at Calvert Hall. The event benefits the pending non-profit Safe and Sound, comprised of Sandy Hook parents and community...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by: Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts; Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities; Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (typically recognized in the first two years of life); and, Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning. The term “spectrum” refers to the wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment or disability that children with ASD can have. Some children are mildly impaired by their symptoms, while others are severely disabled. The latest edition of...

e latest look at autism in the U.S. shows a startling 30 percent jump among 8-year-olds diagnosed with the disorder in a two-year period, to one in every 68 children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did the survey, says the numbers almost certainly reflect more awareness and diagnosis of kids who would have been missed in years past. The new estimate for 2010 was a jump from one in 88 children in 2008, the last year for which numbers had been available. “The number of children diagnosed with autism continues to rise,” the agency’s Dr. Coleen Boyle...

One in 68 children has autism, a 30 percent rise over the last estimate released in 2012, US health authorities said Thursday. The latest US data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the "proportion of children with autism and higher IQ (is) on the rise," said a CDC statement. Previously, as many as one in 88 US children were known to have autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a developmental disorder that recent research suggests may originate in the womb. "This new estimate is roughly 30 percent higher than previous estimates reported in 2012 of 1 in...

In 1998, British Doctor Andrew Wakefield published research findings in Britain's famed medical journal The Lancet linking autism to a children’s vaccine (MMR) for measles, mumps and rubella. The doctor’s claims resulted in a panic as they “…triggered a slump in immunization levels, outbreaks of infectious disease and worldwide public worry.” In 2004, London Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer revealed that Dr. Wakefield had literally MADE UP the research which showed autism resulting in a matter of days after children had been vaccinated. Deer found that a group of attorneys was paying Wakefield large sums to discredit the MMR vaccine....