Risperdal and S100B: Prolactin, Tumors and Tardive Dyskinesia - AGE OF AUTISM

Risperdal and S100B: Prolactin, Tumors and Tardive Dyskinesia - AGE OF AUTISM

With Autism numbers climbing, there are those who look to the profit margin of knowing thousands of children, teens and young adults may need medications to "target behavior."   It is unfortunate and incorrect that Autism is still being looked at as a behavioral and developmental disability for many instead of a neuroimmune disease that manifests in repetitive behaviors, anxiety and verbal/social regression. For many, like my daughter, that regression came about after vaccinations.  These children tend to be very vulnerable canaries to toxins, thus medications can prove to be problematic for many.  It is important to know the mechanism of action in treating symptoms short term, but especially long term as some of these drugs have severe side effects that increase with dosage as well as duration.  

Recently, I wrote about a new study showing that over a third of children with an autism diagnosis had high levels of S100B in their blood, a calcium-binding protein that is produced primarily by astrocytes and is indicative of active brain injury.  While reading about S100B, I started to realize that some abstracts and research about Risperdal and other anti-psychotic medications were appearing that seemed to show a pattern.  

More @ http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/05/risperdal-and-s100b-prolactin-tumors-and-tardive-dyskinesia.html

Autistic Mice or Mice with Autism?

Interesting article on autistic mice, or should I say mice with autism?

'Autistic' mice created – and treated - health - 29 September 2011 - New Scientist

A new strain of mice engineered to lack a gene with links to autism displays many of the hallmarks of the condition. It also responds to a drug in the same way as people with autism, which might open the way to new therapies for such people.

It's not the first mouse strain to have symptoms of autism, and previous ones have already been useful models for studying the condition. Daniel Geschwindat the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues tried a fresh approach, however. Rather than simply examining existing strains to identify mice with autistic-like behaviour, they engineered mice to lack a gene calledCntnap2, which had already been implicated in autism. Cntnap2 is the largest gene on the genome, clocking in at 2.5 million bases, and is responsible for regulating brain circuits involved in language and speech.

Geschwind was initially sceptical that the modified mice would display the behaviour typical of autism in humans, because the neural pathways in the two species are thought to be fairly different. "One has to be cautious," he says. "What is an autistic mouse going to look like?"

Full @ http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20984-autistic-mice-created--and-treated.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Most meds don't help autism

Most meds don't help autism, studies show

Better studies that show which therapies work best for which children with autism spectrum disorders are needed, because most of the current research used to weigh treatment options today is lacking, according to new research published Monday.

When 1 in 110 children are affected by the same disorder where there's no definitively known cause or effective cure and in many parts of the country insufficient treatment options, determining how to best treat your child can be a huge challenge.

This is what parents of young and older children with autism face every day. People who have this neurological disorder can have multiple symptoms that affect their ability to communicate, impair their social behavior and display repetitive behavior. Many therapies and medications are offered to help patients with this disorder which affects patients for as long as they live, but there's not necessarily a consensus on what works at all or works well.

So the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, decided to take a deeper look at the existing research. The AHRQ recognized that care for adolescents and young adults with autism varies greatly from provider to provider and that the people making decisions about treatment – family and health care professionals – had little solid information on which to judge.

Three studies published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, provide some data from this very large report. One article examines the effectiveness of intense early behavioral therapy in children with ASDs; the two others look at medications that are often prescribed to treat children with autism, with one study focusing specifically on a hormone called secretin. The research was done at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

More at CNN.com

Top 5 Autism Drugs

The Top 5 Autism Drugs. I am not sure if this is top 5 most helpful or top 5 most profitable for drug companies. Being a dad who has paid for some of these drugs, my guess is the later.

5 Top Drugs for Autism

• SSRIs
• Anti psychotic (old)
• Anti psychotic (new) - Risperidone
• Anti-convulsants
• Stimulants – Ritalin
  

Article: http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/Drugs-medication-for-autism/2011/01/12/id/382640