Free Resources, Interactive Tools to Meet Autism Learning Needs

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" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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January 3, 2000 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * Pharmacogenetics and the Serotonin System: Abstract

* ASA Seeks Proposals for Autism Research Grants

* Hair Analysis Found Unreliable at Its Root

* They're Just Now Going to Test Ritalin on Kids - Scandal!

Free Resources, Interactive Tools to Meet Autism Learning Needs

[From a company press release.]

http://www.hoovershbn.hoovers.com/bin/story?StoryId=CoLkX0bKbytiYnZi

Children and adults with special learning and communication needs now

have access to the first web site that teams information resources with free

online activities.

The new site, http://www.do2learn.com, offers tested and proven

special education programs that were previously expensive and difficult to

find.

The do2learn.com site was designed originally for individuals with

autism and other learning disabilities. It has also been found to benefit

anyone with a need to learn or relearn basic language and daily living

skills - from young children to adults. Free resources on do2learn.com

include printable picture cards, learning helpers such as math grids and

number- and letter-tracing images, coloring pages, art projects, and a

children's magazine. The site provides teacher tips for classroom

organization, disability guides and links, and a product guide for teachers

and caregivers.

" We are combining the latest research and technology to offer the

information and activities that parents and teachers have said they need

most, either as free web downloads or at minimal cost, " says Dorothy

Strickland, Do2Learn's president. " Our goal is to ensure that every child

who can learn to function in our world has the opportunity to do so. "

Do2Learn evolved from earlier research that used virtual reality to

help children with autism learn basic street-crossing skills. In addition to

continually developing its free tools, the do2learn.com web site will soon

begin offering 3D virtual reality games that teach social, language and

safety skills.

Do2Learn is a subsidiary of Virtual Reality Aids, Inc. The company is

funded by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is

led by a university team with experience developing special education

programs that have proven effective in controlled studies with children in

the public school system. Do2Learn takes advantage of the Internet to

deliver products and services that improve the lives of children and others

with special learning needs.

* * *

Pharmacogenetics and the Serotonin System: Initial Studies and Future

Directions

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_ui

ds=11134668 & dopt=Abstract < website address ends here

1: Eur J Pharmacol 2000 Dec 27;410(2-3):165-181 Related Articles, Books,

LinkOut Veenstra-VanderWeele J, GM, Cook EH Laboratory of

Developmental Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of

Psychiatry, University of Chicago, MC3077, 5841 S. land Avenue, 60637,

Chicago, IL, USA

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) appears to play a role in the

pathophysiology of a range of neuropsychiatric disorders, and serotonergic

agents are of central importance in neuropharmacology. Genes encoding

various components of the 5-HT system are being studied as risk factors in

depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, aggression,

alcoholism, and autism.

Recently, pharmacogenetic research has begun to examine possible

genetic influences on therapeutic response to drugs affecting the serotonin

system. Genes regulating the synthesis (TPH), storage (VMAT2), membrane

uptake (HTT), and metabolism (MAOA) of 5-HT, as well as a number of 5-HT

receptors (HTR1A, HTR1B, HTR2A, HTR2C, and HTR5A), have been studied and

this initial research is reviewed here.

After a brief introduction to serotonin neurobiology and a general

discussion of appropriate genetic methodology, each of the major

5-HT-related genes and their encoded proteins are reviewed in turn. For each

gene, relevant polymorphisms and research on functional variants are

discussed; following brief reviews of the disorder or trait association and

linkage studies, pharmacogenetic studies performed to date are covered.

The critical and manifold roles of the serotonin system, the great

abundance of targets within the system, the wide range of serotonergic

agents-available and in development-and the promising preliminary results

suggest that the serotonin system offers a particularly rich area for

pharmacogenetic research.

PMID: 11134668

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* * *

ASA Seeks Proposals for Autism Research Grants

The Autism Society of America Foundation (ASAF) invites " applied "

research proposals in studies of autism that assess its neuropsychological,

behavioral, educational and/or social issues. Eligible topics include:

efficacy of medical, nutritional, behavioral, and educational interventions,

evaluation of residential and employment models, identification and

objective characterization of core cognitive, communicative and behavioral

features, diagnostic and assessment issues, as well as studies of social,

legal, or vocational interest (these are examples rather than an exclusive

list of possible topics) across the spectrum and lifespan of individuals

with autism.

The grants are limited to $25,000 for one year, with the possibility

of a second year of funding subject to a competitive renewal process.

Pre-proposals are required for consideration and are due February 15, 2001.

Full-proposals will be invited from pre-proposals that fall within our

mandate and will be due in May.

In addition the ASAF is hosting a second, separate competition for

research examining issues of lifespan and mortality for people with autism.

This is a single grant with funding up to $50,000. Pre-proposals are not

required; full-proposals are due February 15th, 2001.

Complete RFP guidelines can be obtained by contacting K.C. Dallia at

1-800-3AUTISM x130 or kcdallia@....

* * *+

Hair Analysis Found Unreliable at Its Root

http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/lhd1.htm

Hair analysis is generally an unreliable method of diagnosing

nutritional problems and exposure to environmental toxins, a study of six

commercial laboratories concludes. A hair sample sent to all six labs

produced widely varying and often opposite results, says the study in

Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

One lab called the patient a " fast metabolizer " and recommended that

she abstain from vitamin A; another said the sample showed she was a " slow

metabolizer " who should take vitamin A supplements. Hair analysis results

can be skewed by hair treatments, contamination from environmental sources

and inconsistent lab techniques, says the study from the California

Department of Health Service.

* * *

They're Just Now Going to Test Ritalin on Kids - Scandal!

They Haven't Tested Ritalin on the Children It's Prescribed For! Scandal!

[by Huget in The Washington Post.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64888-2000Dec29.html

Under pressure from parents and schools looking to control attention

deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), doctors commonly prescribe

methylphenidate (MPH), best known by the brand name Ritalin, as a treatment

for children as young as 2 -- even though the drug has been tested and

approved only for children ages 6 and up.

A report published early last year in the Journal of the American

Medical Association by Zito, an epidemiologist at the University of

land School of Medicine in Baltimore, estimates that some 150,000 to

200,000 children between the ages of 2 and 4 in the United States are

currently receiving prescriptions for MPH.

Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health

(NIMH) in Rockville, asks, " How can we tolerate a situation in which drugs

are prescribed to an increasing number of preschoolers without safety and

efficacy data? "

ce Greenhill, of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at

Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, thinks we can't. Greenhill organized a

consortium of six institutions to apply for a grant to study the effects of

Ritalin on a group of children ranging in age from 3 to 8. About two-thirds

of the 312 children to be enrolled in the $6 million Preschool ADHD

Treatment Study (PATS) will be younger than 6 years old.

Greenhill's plan has raised ethical questions of its own, including

whether children this young should be subjected to clinical trials of any

drug, much less one with Ritalin's ability to alter the way the brain works.

In addition to concerns about possible effects on a young child's developing

brain, many question whether little children can adequately understand their

participation and articulate their willingness to take part in any clinical

trial.

Hyman says all of this has been thoroughly examined and planned for,

both by the research team and through the NIMH's and local institutional

review processes. " We were tied up in knots by this, " he says, acknowledging

the vetting to which the NIMH subjected Greenhill's plan.

The study is designed to include children with moderate to serious

symptoms who have never been medicated for ADHD. Before any child joins the

study, his parents receive training intended to help them improve the

child's behavior without drugs. Children who respond positively to these

efforts will be dropped from the study. Only those whose symptoms remain

moderate to severe will continue. After the correct dose for each child is

established, he or she will be monitored for 40 weeks to ascertain the

drug's longer-term effects.

" The consent process is active and ongoing, " says Greenhill. " Parents

are re-consented at each of five stages. " Children accepted into the study

must be fluent enough to object to what's going on; each will be offered an

age-appropriate explanation and will be asked to either assent or say no to

further testing.

Psychiatrist Breggin, the Bethesda-based author of the 1998 book

" Talking Back to Ritalin, " has been one of the most outspoken of the

drug's -- and the study's -- detractors.

" We shouldn't be giving addictive drugs to kids because we're not

willing to give time to them, " says Breggin, who advocates

non-pharmaceutical treatments such as parental training for the set of

symptoms known as ADHD. " All ADHD is, is a list of symptoms that irritate

teachers, " Breggin says. " To call it a disease is ridiculous, and to say

it's hard to treat is meaningless. What we're doing is drugging our kids

instead of improving family life and schools.

" If the NIMH were being responsible, they'd call for a moratorium on

drugging little children, " Breggin says. " There is no scientific way to rule

out that we're ruining their brains. "

Greenhill counters: " The naysayers may say this isn't needed, but we

have to try to collect information because it's been shown that more and

more children in this age group are receiving this medication, and we don't

have any idea about safe dose range or how it works over time. "

" Of course there are some children who are over-medicated, but also

some who are horrendously impaired, " adds Hyman. " We worry about the impact

of treatment on the developing brain, but also the impact of no treatment on

the developing brain. "

" Without a controlled trial, " Hyman says, " in essence every kid is an

uncontrolled experiment -- but we never learn anything. "

The trials are due to begin this month at six sites, including s

Hopkins University in Baltimore.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

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