Oxytocin nasal spray for attachment disorder?

Hormone oxytocin makes you trust strangers more with your money

I'm not sure "attachment disorder" is a useful classification, but it's popular in the special needs and adoption worlds. Whatever the fundamental pathophysiology, I wonder how long it will be before we start seeing therapeutic trials using oxytocin nasal spray. It will be a long time, however, before such a treatment would get FDA approval...

The hormone, oxytocin, produced during childbirth and lactation - encourages us to trust strangers, it is also a hormone which gets mammals to mate. Swiss researchers have found that when people are given some of this hormone they trust people who are handling their money much more.

Another study on the superiority of phonics

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Primary reading lessons reviewed

A stuck clock tells time twice a day, and social conservatives are not always wrong:

In a project in Clackmannanshire, all children were exposed to synthetic phonics throughout primary school - almost to the exclusion of other methods.

When tested at age 11, they were found to be three years ahead of their contemporaries across Scotland in reading.

Renting motor homes: special needs vacations.

MotorHomeRentals.Com

Oddly, it never occurred to me that one could rent these things. Rentals, timeshares and other variants of shared ownership make far more sense than keeping one of these beast unused for 98% of the year.

For some children with special needs, a motor home trip may work better than a van or plane trip.

Autism and infectious diseases

Entrez PubMed: autism and etiology

The recent press about mass profile of unusual blood chemistries statistically correlated with autism led me to review the medical literature on autism etiology. I did my best to exclude MMR immunizations; that seems relatively unlikely as a contributing factor. I was interested in mention of infectious agents.

I didn't come up with very much. The literature is a confusing stew of hypotheses, with none seeming to lead. Part of the problem, of course, is that the wide range of entities we call "autism" may represent several different conditions. Even the most "classic" autism may represent many processes with similar outcomes. It's pretty hard to sort out such an ill-defined target.

If there's any fashionable correlation with infection it works on the assumption that some autism subsets are caused by an autoimmune reaction to a common virus or insult that happens to damage brain tissue. There's also a tendency to look for common causes of both autism and celiac disease; these conditions have some superficial similarities.

If autism has an autoimmune and infectious component, and if the frequency is rising in wealthy nations, they one would wonder if it was a "hygiene disease". These are diseases thought to arise from the absence of early infections; chickenpox, for example, is a much more dangerous disease in middle-age than in childhood.

All very speculative. Progress will probably come from studying well defined familial autism syndromes that may be more homogenous.

Autism and the Corbett blood chemistry study

Strong evidence of alterations in blood samples of children with autism

This was, to me, a novel approach. NPR had better coverage than this news article; SurroMed was able to measure thousands of paremeters and compare them to a control group. A fairly large number seemed statistically different. The theory is this can work like digital 'fingerprinting' or 'dna matching'; without regard to mechanism of action it may be possible to define an "autism profile" of lab results. It's a very statistical approach to screening -- similar to factor or regression analysis; the correlated findings may be predictive but not "causal". Fascinating. I'd read predictions of this particular approach, but this is the first study where I've seen it at work.

The next step will be to try to identify a practical 'profile subset' and then test it in children to see if it's predictive, using blood samples from a group other than the group used in this study. That work has probably been done and may be published shortly.

Amaral along with pediatric neuropsychologist Blythe Corbett and other M.I.N.D. Institute colleagues took blood samples from 70 children with autism who were between 4 and 6 years old and from 35 children of the same age who didn't have the disorder. The samples were then analyzed by a biotech company, SurroMed, LLC, Menlo Park, Calif., which has developed technology that can identify differences in the number and types of immune cells, proteins, peptides and metabolites in small amounts of blood.

The study has generated an enormous amount of data and M.I.N.D. Institute researchers say it will take months before all of the information has been fully evaluated. But initial findings clearly demonstrate differences in the immune system, as well as proteins and other metabolites in children with autism:

-- The antibody producing B cells are increased by 20 percent in the autism group

-- Natural killer cells are increased by 40 percent

-- More than 100 proteins demonstrated significant differential expression between the autism and typically developing groups

-- Other small molecules (metabolites) also show many differences

Overview of trends in reading -- the phonics renaissance

Learning to read by ear

Nothing new here, but a nice overview.

The Mobile Phone for children -- and for some adults as well?

Firefly Mobile: The Mobile Phone for Mobile Kids

This is a "cute" and attractive mobile phone targeted at young children. It may have other uses as well however. It's robust, inexpensive (cheap to replace) and designed for simplicity and ease of use. It may be appropriate for older children with cognitive impairments or for elders who are overwhelmed by typical cell phones (eg. almost everyone over 70).

Product Information:

    * Works on GSM 850/1900 MHz networks
    * Internal antenna
    * Rechargeable, nonremovable lithium ion battery
    * Up to 6 hours talk time
    * Up to 205 hours standby time
    * Size: 3.46" x 1.75" x 0.79"
    * Weight: 2.12 ounces
    * Dual language capabilities: English and Spanish

Fun for Kids:

    * Firefly Fireworks™ light display flashes when making and receiving calls, during standby, and when charging
    * 12 ring tones to choose from
    * 5 animations to choose from
    * 7 LCD screen backlight colors to choose from

No Sweat for Parents:

    * Speed-Dial Mom, Dad, and Emergency calls
    * PIN-protected Phone Book with up to 20 numbers
    * Optionally rejects calls from numbers not in Phone Book
    * Missed call indicator and list

Special Education News and Links: S&P Opens A Rating Service On Schools

Special Education News and Links: S&P Opens A Rating Service On Schools (washingtonpost.com)

ADHD teacher evaluation scale

Family Medicine Notes

In addition to being useful for clinicians, it's also an interesting overview of the kinds of observed behaviors seen with adhd.

Five siblings with varying flavors of autism spectrum disorder

USATODAY.com - Autism's echoes fill this home

We sometimes feel challenged, but we know we're still in the 'minor leagues'. This family is in the major leagues. Of their six children two have classic severe autism, one has Apsergers, two are "PDD/NOS" (autism spectrum disorder) and one is "normal" (aka "mundane"). Aside from the staggering parental burden the range of presentations is astounding. This collection of genetic siblings with diverse presentations has shifted me back towards the traditional school of thought that Aspergers, PDD and classic autism actually have some common underlying pathophysiologies.

USA Today complements this article with a good autism overview.

Really, a nice set of articles. Good journalism. I must also extend my respect and appreciation to this family, and to thank them for the help they're providing to autism researchers.

PS. Tonight Blogger, the service that hosts this blog, is again almost completely dysfunctional.