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A mother says she is devastated, after hidden cameras captured caregivers physically abusing her adult disabled son. “It’s hard for me to forgive myself that I took my son and put him in their hand, like you take your son to hell,” Kathy Coleman says. Caregivers were recorded by hidden cameras kicking and punching her son Cameron, stomping on his face, spitting on him, whipping him with a chain and threatening him, possibly even shooting him with a pellet gun. “My son is sick. Does he deserve this?” Coleman asks. Cameron is a 31-year-old man with autism. He doesn’t speak...

Five disorders from depression to autism share a genetic link, which could pave the way for new treatments Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia overlap at a genetic level Two gene markers common to all of the disorders govern the balance of calcium in brain cells New understanding could help develop treatments The five most common mental health and developmental disorders share a common genetic root, a study has found. Scientists found a link between autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. The findings, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, could revolutionise how doctors think...

Mililani - For half a dozen former Kipapa Elementary School students, room P-10 was a little class of horrors. Hawaii News Now has learned that the families of six disabled students have now come forward with allegations of abuse by staffers at this Mililani School. The latest allegations come from the parents of an autistic girl who say school staffers force fed their daughter, often to the point of vomiting. Court documents filed in U.S. District Court say that in some instances the girl -- who often had trouble eating -- was forced to eat food she threw up. People familiar with the case say the girl also was...

Shortly after her move from New Hampshire to Newtown in 1998, Nancy Lanza had good news about her troubled son. "Adam is doing well here, and seems to be enjoying the new school," Lanza wrote to a friend back in Kingston, N.H., in a Feb. 9, 1999, email. But Adam, 6, then diagnosed with a condition that made it difficult for him to manage and respond to sights, touch and smell, eventually struggled in the first grade at his new school — Sandy Hook Elementary. His mother would respond, touching off a 10-year educational shuffle with moves in and out...

A pair of professors objected to our coverage of them at the Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting in Boston this year. Near as we can figure out, what they objected to was the fact that we covered them. “Glad you could make it to my paper on 1930s propaganda and popular culture,” Matthew Stratton, an Assistant Professor of English at the University of California-Davis wrote in an effort at cordiality that belied what was to come. “I must admit, however, that I’m a bit confused by your account of the panel.” “What exactly in my paper did you find objectionable...

...The vast majority of autistic people are not violent.... But the suggestion that science has demonstrated there is no link at all between autism and aggressive violence is questionable. Google “autism” and “aggression” and you will suddenly be treated to a counter world the formal autism community claims does not exist: desperate mothers seeking help or respite from the violent behavior of large, aggressive, beloved autistic boys (and a few girls)...

Ms Conte called the ordeal 'sad' for Lanza and his family, and suggested that the violence is a portion of a much larger situation. 'Guns are easy to point to, but it's really a mental health issue.'

As we reported last night, buried inside the NYT biopic of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was arguably one of the most important missing pieces in the story, at least so far, which could provide clues into partially explaining yesterday's tragic loss of young life, namely that the 20 year old man suffered from Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism (two conditions which are being merged in the upcoming update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) manual of mental disorders), which has been traditionally associated with social communication difficulties, including flat affect, and one which in some clinical studies...

Small-scale trial provides hope for treatment of autistic behaviour in children. A drug normally used to increase the rate at which people urinate improves some of the symptoms of autism in children, according to a small clinical trial published today in Translational Psychiatry1. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication and social interactions, and also by repetitive behaviours in those affected. Research has shown that signalling by a molecule called GABA, a neurotransmitter which normally dampens down neuronal activity, is altered in autism. And that this disruption of GABA is due to increased levels of chloride ions in...

Bill Clinton is famous for feeling others' pain. So he might be the last person one would suspect of having Asperger syndrome, which is characterized by a lack of demonstrated empathy. Yet that is precisely the thought that passed through the mind of Ron Fournier after meeting the former president with his son Tyler, who is diagnosed with the disorder. Fournier told the surprising story on today's Morning Joe. A former Associated Press reporter, now with the National Journal, Fournier recounted how during the meeting, Clinton went off on a long monologue about Teddy Roosevelt, missing the clues that he...

The possibility that autism is linked to traffic pollution has been raised by researchers in California. Their study of more than 500 children said those exposed to high levels of pollution were three times more likely to have autism than children who grew up with cleaner air. However, other researchers said traffic was a "very unlikely" and unconvincing explanation for autism. The findings were presented in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal. Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency were used to work out levels of pollution for addresses in California. This was used to compare exposure to pollution, in...

The rate of autism in New Jersey has doubled in six years to one in 49 children — and one in 29 boys — an “epidemic increase” in a disorder that has confounded researchers for decades.  Two percent of children in the state are now identified with autism by their eighth birthday. For more information * The report on autism prevalence can be found at the website of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cdc.gov\autism.* Information on the signs and symptoms of autism, as well as developmental milestones, can be found at cdc.gov\ActEarly.* Autism New Jersey provides support...

One of the most popular and widely accepted theories on the cause of autism spectrum disorders attributes the condition to disrupted connectivity between different regions of the brain. This 'connectivity hypothesis' claims that the social and cognitive abnormalities in people with autism can be explained by a dearth of connections between distant regions of the brain1. Some flavours of this theory also predict more connections between nearby brain regions. Recent studies, however, have found that when a person moves their head while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) |[mdash]| a method that maps how different neuroanatomical structures of the brain...

A new study released this past week has once again linked the consumption of processed foods to health complications, giving food safety advocates even more cause for concern. The April 10th publication of the Clinical Epigenetics Journal reported a link between high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and autism in the United States. According to the study, the rise in autism rates "is not related to mercury exposure from fish, coal-fired power plants, thimerosal, or dental amalgam but instead to the consumption of HFCS.” The study, led by former FDA toxicologist and whistleblower Renee Dufault, found that a deficiency of zinc,...

Autism is described as a medical condition whereby people are selfcentred, uncommunicative and at a remove from their social environment. There are many different types of autism and degrees of it. A type of “social autism” is also quite possible. We have a Presidential candidate who’s just disowned any interest in 47% of the American public. This is “policy” and the GOP hasn’t retracted one word in any shape or form. Apparently treating half of the American public like human beings isn’t on the agenda. Nobody should be too surprised by this mindset. It’s the default thinking for modern conservatives....

A team of Australian researchers, led by University of Melbourne has developed a genetic test that is able to predict the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). . . . The test correctly predicted ASD with more than 70 per cent accuracy in people of central European descent.

Genetic mutations in metabolic pathway could be fixed with nutritional supplement. A rare, hereditary form of autism has been found — and it may be treatable with protein supplements. Genome sequencing of six children with autism has revealed mutations in a gene that stops several essential amino acids being depleted. Mice lacking this gene developed neurological problems related to autism that were reversed by dietary changes, a paper published today in Science shows1. “This might represent the first treatable form of autism,” says Joseph Gleeson, a child neurologist at the University of California, San Diego, who led the study. “That...

Scientists are beginning to analyze the DNA differences between modern humans and our extinct archaic relatives, the Denisovans. (National Human Genome Research Institute) Genome of ancient Denisovans may help clarify human evolution Scientists recently reported they had pieced together a high-quality sequence of an archaic human relative, the Denisovans. Among other things, the researchers took a close look at the ways in which we differ from these people, who were named after the place where their traces were discovered: Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia....snip It's "fascinating" to see the DNA changes that spread to most or all...

According to an affidavit filed by Harris County Sheriffs investigators, the boy's dad and sister and other family members came down from Palestine to visit relatives, and while they were here, decided to pick up a refrigerator at a Conn's store on the North Freeway just outside of the city limits on May 19. While there, the boy asked to go the bathroom and went inside to relieve his bladder at a urinal. The boy was alone in the restroom, but not for long, because suddenly, according to the affidavit, Conn's employee Martin Maule walked in, stood next to the...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of children in the United States with autism has risen by 78 percent over the past decade.  It is now estimated that 1 out of every 88 children in the United States has some form of autism disorder.