FW: Autism Out Of The Darkness on PBS/ Serotonin & OCD/ Schizophrenia Gene

[Guest guest]

Autism Out Of The Darkness on PBS/ Serotonin & OCD/

Schizophrenia Gene

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

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

______________________________________________________

March 20, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * First Gene Mutation For Schizophrenia Discovered

* Serotonin and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

* IOM Panel To Focus On Safety Of Vaccines

Autism Out Of The Darkness: Other Avenues - PBS

April is National Autism Awareness Month. Many people are still

unaware of this disorder and its affects. The movie " Rainman " introduced the

public to autism and some of its unique challenges. In recent years there

has been more public awareness through the dedication and commitment by such

celebrities as actor of ER, Actress Rene Russo and football

players Doug Flutie and Dan Marino.

As part of National Autism Awareness Month, KVCR-TV in southern

California, has produced a one–hour program highlighting some of the many

therapies, interventions and medical options available for those living with

this disorder. Autism Out Of The Darkness: Other Avenues, airs on KVCR-TV on

Thursday, April 12 at 8:00 pm followed by On-Call at 9:00 pm a one hour live

call-in program which features some of the professionals interviewed in the

Autism Out Of The Darkness: Other Avenues special.

__________

Getting It On your Local PBS

This program has been offered to all

the PBS stations. Please contact your PBS station to

inquire if they will be airing the program. It will

" feed " to the stations on Sunday, April 1. If you

contact your local stations you need to do so before

then. You can find your local PBS station here:

http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html

___________

This program was produced for parents, grandparents, care givers,

teachers, educators, the medical community and other professionals looking

for options. The program does not advocate one therapy or intervention over

another, but provides alternatives and choices.

When a parent first receives a diagnosis from the medical community,

often very little information is given as to what the next step should be.

Many parents learn all they possibly can by searching the internet,

attending conferences and seminars and grasping for all the information

available. Other families, due to financial burden, child care

responsibilities, or a number of other reasons are not able to attend

conferences and are not always as well informed. This special program is an

effort on the part of Public Television to follow its mission of education,

making this information available to anyone who owns a television and lives

in our broadcast area.

The program was produced by the mother of an 8-year-old autistic son.

She knows first hand the challenges, stress, frustrations and simple joys

that come from raising an autistic child.

Autism Out Of The Darkness: Other Avenues features therapies that are

available throughout the United States. While some therapies are more

difficult to implement due to professionals capability to provided it to all

communities, the information presented is valuable to any family facing

autism regardless of where they live.

A Reference Guide is available to your PBS station if they wish to

provide copies to viewers upon request. The Reference Guide includes

names, addresses, website addresses, other references and suggested readings

pertaining to the various interventions discussed in the program.

Autism is a neurological disorder that usually strikes in the first

two years of life. It can cause severe impairment to language, cognition and

communication. Other behaviors include lack of eye contact, lack of social

interaction, repetitive behaviors, a rigid need for routine, severe sensory

dysregulation, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, and in many cases

gastrointestinal symptoms. Half of all autistic children will never learn

to speak.

But parents have come a long way and are making great strides with

their children through early intervention programs. The key to battling this

disorder is early detection. The earlier interventions are initiated the

better the autistic child's outcome may be. Autism can be treated and a

child with autism can learn.

* * *

First Gene Mutation For Schizophrenia Discovered

http://unisci.com/stories/20011/0320011.htm

German scientists have identified a mutation in a new ion channel gene

as the cause of a type of familial schizophrenia. As the first report of a

mutation identified through genetic linkage studies in psychiatry, this may

represent one of the most important discoveries in contemporary medicine.

A gene variant contributing to the cause of catatonic schizophrenia in

a large pedigree was discovered by scientists of the

Julius-Maximilians-University of Wuerzburg, Germany.

The variant was detected when a group of psychiatrists, geneticists

and neuroscientists around Klaus- Lesch and Jobst Meyer at the

Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy investigated genes on human

chromosome 22 to elucidate the genetic background of dominantly inherited

catatonic schizophrenia.

That form of schizophrenia is characterized by acute psychotic

episodes with hallucinations, delusions and disturbed body movements.

The protein encoded by this gene, which has been designated WKL1,

shares some features with ion channels. Ion channel proteins are located in

the cell membrane and assist transportation of electric currents along

neurons.

Mutations in the potassium channel KCNA1, another ion channel which is

remotely related to WKL1, cause episodic ataxia, a rare movement disorder

lacking psychotic episodes.

In the mutated form of WKL1, a leucine amino acid residue is replaced

by a methionine within one of seven transmembrane domains. The WKL1 gene

transcript was found exclusively in the brain and not in peripheral tissues

such as heart, muscle, or liver.

Chromosome 22, where the gene is localized, has come into focus based

on results of a previously conducted linkage analysis, which is a commonly

used method to narrow down chromosomal disease loci.

The discovery of the WKL1 gene, which will be published in Molecular

Psychiatry, may lead to a better understanding of the pathophysiological

mechanisms underlying the development and long-term outcome of

schizophrenia.

Future studies need to clarify whether mutations in the WKL1 gene or

similar genes may also cause schizophrenia or related disorders in other

families and sporadic cases.

The development of causal treatments of these devasting and

cost-intensive disorders (about 1% of the population is affected by

schizophrenia) may now be a more realistic prospect and an attainable goal.

(Reference: " A missense mutation in a novel gene encoding a putative

cation channel is associated with catatonic schizophrenia in a large

pedigree, " Jobst Meyer, s Huberth, a Ortega, Yana V. Syagailo,

ne Jatzke, Rainald Mössner, Isabel Ulzheimer-Teuber, Angelika Schmitt,

Klaus- Lesch. Molecular Psychiatry 2001 Volume 6, number 3, pages

304-308.)

>> DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW <<

Subscribe, Read, then Forward the FEAT Daily Newsletter.

To Subscribe go to www.feat.org/FEATnews No Cost!

* * *

Serotonin and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Reactivity of serotonin in whole blood: relationship with drug response in

obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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

ds=11239907 & dopt=Abstract

1: Biol Psychiatry 2001 Feb 15;49(4):360-368 Books, LinkOut

Humble M, Bejerot S, Bergqvist PB, Bengtsson F

Psychiatry of Northern Dalecarlia, Mora Hospital, Mora, Sweden

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder responds almost only to

potent serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Previous studies have suggested a

relation between serotonergic function and clinical outcome in serotonin

reuptake inhibitor treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Methods: In a randomized, double-blind trial, comparing clomipramine,

paroxetine, and a placebo in obsessive-compulsive disorder, serotonin levels

in whole blood (WB-5-HT) were measured at baseline, after 1 week, and after

4 weeks of treatment and related to clinical outcome in 36 patients.

Results: In patients treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors there

was a pronounced decrease of WB-5-HT, variable after 1 week and uniformly

maximal after 4 weeks. The decrease of WB-5-HT after 1 week of serotonin

reuptake inhibitor treatment correlated negatively with clinical outcome

after 12 weeks (r = -.61, p =.0006); hence, patients with slower WB-5-HT

reactivity eventually responded better to treatment. Baseline WB-5-HT, but

not WB-5-HT reactivity , was related to season. Depression, autistic traits,

and previous serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment predicted nonresponse.

Conclusions: A fast decrease of WB-5-HT was associated with poor

clinical outcome. This may be related to faster serotonin efflux from

platelets, which has previously been linked to autism. Further studies are

necessary to identify the underlying mechanism and discern whether serotonin

reuptake inhibitor-induced WB-5-HT decrease is clinically useful.

PMID: 11239907

* * *

IOM Panel To Focus On Safety Of Vaccines

[by Stapleton, AMNews.]

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/hlsb0326.htm

Sometimes hours, sometimes days after receiving the

measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, the child experienced violent symptoms -- a

startling illness, a serious rash, a high fever. Then the previously

developmentally typical child began regressing.

This association has caught the attention of many parent-advocates, as

well as some clinicians and researchers. To them, it offers a possible

explanation for the sudden onset of this mysterious developmental disorder.

However, the hard science backing it up has yet to emerge. Moreover, many

public health experts worry that the concern will accelerate an erosion of

confidence regarding immunization and lead to a society vulnerable to

diseases that have now been battled into submission.

In an effort to inform the debate, the Institute of Medicine held the

first in a series of meetings of its Immunization Safety Review panel March

8. The panel is charged with exploring the existing body of science related

to this possible causal link and focusing on the gaps of information that

must be filled before concrete findings and recommendations can be offered.

" I hope as clinicians and researchers that we don't get put into a

position that by requesting investigation we are saying that the parent is

wrong,” said Carbone, MD, chief of the laboratory of pediatric and

respiratory viral diseases at the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines

Research and Review Office. " Clinical associations are very important. But

associations can be harmful as well as helpful. They must be studied

objectively. " Dr. Carbone was a presenter at the March IOM meeting.

The IOM panel, established in response to a request by the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, will

review hypotheses about existing and emerging immunization safety concerns.

This is the third time the IOM has convened such a panel. Ultimately,

the panel, which will meet three times a year during a three-year period,

will issue specific reports to provide a framework through which

immunization safety can be considered.

Incidence of autism, once considered rare, has increased as much as

500% by some counts. Its dramatic rise has led to a stepped-up search for

possible causes, both genetic and environmental. And that is where questions

about vaccines have found traction. Some advocates look to the MMR vaccine

as a starting point. Others cite the burden placed on the immune system by

the 22 separate vaccines given between birth and age 2 as triggering a whole

array of illnesses.

Speaking at the IOM committee's organizational meeting in January,

Louis , MD, vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics,

acknowledged the concerns. But he urged caution, saying that the " remarkable

success of immunization has altered perceptions of the need for and safety

of vaccines. " He also said that the " almost universal acceptance of

childhood immunization is being threatened by allegations of vaccine-induced

adverse events, " much of which is based on anecdotal evidence.

" Since every child receives multiple vaccines at almost two monthly

intervals during the first two years of life, it is inevitable that most

illnesses of early childhood occur in some temporal relationship to

immunization, " he said. " The challenge ... is to sort out causality from

coincidence.

Coincidence and anecdote play important roles in advancing medical

science but are where the investigative process begins -- never the

conclusion.”

Efforts to get at this question during the March IOM meeting focused

on research advanced by Dr. Wakefield of the Royal Free Hospital in

London. He investigated the relationship between the MMR vaccine and

inflammatory bowel disease in children with pervasive developmental

disorder.

Dr. Wakefield examined a sample of 12 children, age 3 to 10. Eleven

had chronic or acute nonspecific colitis. Eight had a definitive diagnosis

of autism, one was " questionable and possibly disintegrative disorder, " with

another in the " autistic spectrum disorder. " Two had " postvaccinial

encephalitis.”

Those who support Wakefield's findings are intrigued by the fact that

he identified the weakened virus used in the measles vaccine in the

intestines of these children, who had shown developmental regression within

14 days of being given the MMR vaccine. He maintains that this viral

infection may have allowed certain potential toxins to enter the bloodstream

and be transported to the brain. He is expected to publish findings from a

larger study soon.

Still, questions remain about his hypothesis. According to an IOM

background report, his study is the only one to date to link autism, the

vaccine and gastrointestinal involvement. Meanwhile, other epidemiologic

studies reviewed by the IOM provided little concrete information about the

relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. Also, analysis of the number

and characteristics of children diagnosed with autism and related disorders

remains limited. Trends in the diagnosis and possible changes in prevalence

complicate attempts to relate increases in the number of cases to

introduction of MMR vaccine. In addition, because the onset of autism is

typically insidious, it is difficult to find a precise connection between

vaccination and onset.

_______________________________________________________

Please help us save a lifetime, your child's and ours'

Send your United Way Contributions to FEAT: Put 16106 on your donor

form at work. Or send to: FEAT PO Box 255722 Sacramento CA 95865

_______________________________________________________

Lenny Schafer, Editor PhD Ron Sleith Kay Stammers

Editor@... Unsubscribe: FEATNews-signoff-request@...