PLT Test Blog

A reference to the other Broccoli One advantage this blog has is that it looks at the comorbidities of autism, so we are aware of useful findings in related areas.  So it then does not come as a big surprise when a therapy effective in related areas also helps with autism. One of the most useful is asthma .   Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) is a related condition, brought on by smoking or pollution.  It kills 3 million people a year; COPD is made much worse by chronic oxidative stress.  We saw in an earlier post that oxidative stress stops the asthma drugs from working.  The current treatment for oxidative stress in COPD is N-acetyl cysteine (NAC).  I recall they are still looking for a better treatment; perhaps the search is over.  (see later). We also saw that there is already some overlap between “emerging” research findings in cancer and those in autism. These include:- ·         PAK1, mTOR (...

This blog is mainly about classic early-onset autism and the biology underlying it. There are many other disorders that also result in autistic behaviours, some of which are much better understood than classic autism.  Today’s post is about Mitochondrial Disease which appears to be the precursor to most cases of regressive autism, according to Dr Richard Kelley, at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. In well-resourced centers for autism, by which I mean large teaching hospitals in the US, cases of autism are often fully investigated.  First they rule out mitochondrial disease and common known single gene causes like Fragile X.  Next comes the chromosome microarray. The microarray (often referred to as CMA) may identify a genetic cause in 15-20% of individuals with an ASD.  In the rest of the world no such testing takes place, unless you are very lucky. If the supplement Carnitine makes you feel better, read on, because you quite likely have some mitocho...

An altogether different kind of IED, although you may not always feel so. Many people think that childhood psychiatric disorders, including autism, are grossly over-diagnosed in the US. This did spring to mind when I came across a reference to “intermittent explosive disorder” and autism. Before we get into that, I received an interesting graphical presentation of ADHD in the US, from a company called Healthline; they want me to give a link on my post on Clonidine .  It shows many things including how ADHD diagnosis varies wildly by State, just as the CDC’s autism data does.  The difference is remarkable. I don’t think anybody really believes that ADHD is 3 times more prevalent in Kentucky than in Nevada.  It just shows how inconsistent the diagnosis is; perhaps you could correlate the diagnosis with the medical school attended by the doctor/psychiatrist? Back to Intermittent Explosive Disorder Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a behavioral disorder characterized...