The Autism News

The Autism News | English

By Health News Digest

Every parent has a little anxiety as a new school year approaches. Will my daughter like her teacher? Will my son be able to keep up with his homework? But for parents of a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the stakes can feel much higher.

Diagnoses of ADHD have been steadily increasing over the past decade. The National Institute of Mental Health says that three to five percent of children have it, and many experts believe that the true percentage is closer to ten, with many children going undiagnosed. Often, the first reaction to an ADHD diagnosis is to start children on medications that, while enabling them to focus, can constrict their emotional range, perception, and creativity.

Overcoming ADHD: Helping Your Child Become Calm, Engaged, and Focused—Without a Pill is the answer for parents who want to know if there are treatment options besides Ritalin. Through his thirty-five years of clinical practice, Dr. Stanley Greenspan—one of the country’s foremost child psychiatrists—has developed an intervention program that identifies the roots of ADHD and tailors treatment to the individual. Greenspan’s program is based on the knowledge that ADHD is not a single disorder, but rather a series of problems that share a symptom—inattention. But paying attention is a process that involves receiving and processing information as well as planning and executing actions. Children exhibiting signs of ADHD could be having trouble at any point in this process. The key to intervention is not giving them the latest catch-all medical stimulant, but figuring out where the break-down occurs and reinforcing the associated skills.

Overcoming ADHD gives parents and caregivers the information they need to strengthen the different abilities that contribute to attentiveness, including planning and sequencing actions, modulating responses to sensation, and thinking reflectively. It also explains the importance of family dynamics and a healthy environment in ADHD intervention, providing a comprehensive approach to treating ADHD effectively—and without drugs.

Stanley I. Greenspan, MD, is the author of Engaging Autism: Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think, The Challenging Child: Understanding, Raising, and Enjoying the Five “Difficult” Types of Children, and The Child with Special Needs: Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth—all published by Da Capo Lifelong Books. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School and president of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Jacob Greenspan is Co-Director of the DIR Support Services Center for special-needs children, including those with ADHD.

August 1, 2009 $25.00 Hardcover 198 Pages
Childcare/Psychology ISBN 978-0-7382-1355-2 A Merloyd Lawrence Book

Source: http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Children_s_Health_200/Overcoming_ADHD_-_Helping_Your_Child_Become_Calm_Engaged_and_Focused_Without_a_Pill.shtml

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The Autism News | English

By Miranda Newey | This Is Cheshire

A MUM has asked people not to judge when they see a child misbehaving, throwing themselves on the floor, rocking, hitting their parents or seemingly acting up.

Liz Gregory and her partner Andy Cotterill have dealt with stares and rude comments from strangers confused by the behaviour of their five-year-old son Lewis Cotterill for a number of years.

The Cobbs Infant School pupil was diagnosed with severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when he was four in 2008.

His parents, who live in Appleton, noticed his behaviour changing from the age of two. The toddler preferred to play alone, disliked loud noise and was always in trouble.

In a typical week the mum-of-one said her son had: *Disappeared from the garden and returned with a traffic cone.

* Thown water at his teachers.

* Shouted at people on a bus, telling them to get off.

* Refused to wear anything but red clothes.

* Refused to sleep until 11pm at the earliest.

Liz and postman Andy were shocked when they were told by experts that their child also had specific autistic tendencies.

Liz said: “It was a shock for us because we did not understand it. But after a few weeks of researching, reading books and surfing the internet, it was like we were reading about Lewis.

“We were finally understanding why he had such poor sensory skills and wanted to only wear certain materials, had a dislike of certain foods, and an obsession with the colour red.”

ADHD and autism are both disorders of the brain.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that three to five per cent of children suffer from the disorder.

It is not known why the brain develops differently in people with autism.

“Lewis is our beautiful, unique little boy. Children with autism often cannot cope in everyday situations like others. They often behave in a unpredictable manner because they find it hard to cope.

“They are not naughty and their parents are not bad for not reprimanding them, often ignoring the behaviour works best.”

Lewis also suffers from allergies and various health problems.

Liz, a hairdresser, added: “The child may look ‘normal’ whatever normal is but maybe, just maybe they have autism.”

The couple praised the teachers at the Wood Lane, Appleton school and the staff at Warrington Hospital for their support.

They said anyone concerned about their child should seek help from the experts.

Source: http://www.thisischeshire.co.uk/news/4457292.Please_don_t_judge_my_child_s_behaviour/

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The Autism News English acting up, ADHD, Andy Cotterill, Appleton, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, autistic, don't judge my child, hitting their parents, Lewis Cotterill, Liz Gregory, misbehaving, National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH, rocking, throwing themselves on the floor

The Autism News | English

By Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Missing DNA segments may suggest future drug targets

Pediatric researchers have identified hundreds of gene variations that occur more frequently in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than in children without ADHD. Many of those genes were already known to be important for learning, behavior, brain function and neurodevelopment, but had not been previously associated with ADHD.

“Because the gene alterations we found are involved in the development of the nervous system, they may eventually guide researchers to better targets in designing early intervention for children with ADHD,” said lead author Josephine Elia, M.D., a psychiatrist and ADHD expert at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The study appeared online today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Unlike changes to single DNA bases, called SNPs or “snips,” the alterations examined in the current study are broader changes in structure. Called copy number variations (CNVs), they are missing or repeated stretches of DNA. CNVs have recently been found to play significant roles in many diseases, including autism and schizophrenia Everyone has CNVs in their DNA, but not all of the variations occur in locations that affect the function of a gene. The current study is the first to investigate the role of CNVs in ADHD.

Individually, each CNV may be rare, but taken together, a combination of changes in crucial regions may interact to raise an individual’s risk for a specific disease. “When we began this study in 2003, we expected to find a handful of genes that predispose a child to ADHD,” said study co-leader Peter S. White, Ph.D., a molecular geneticist and director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Children’s Hospital. “Instead, there may be hundreds of genes involved, only some of which are changed in each person. But if those genes act on similar pathways, you may end up with a similar result—ADHD. This may also help to explain why children with ADHD often present clinically with slightly different symptoms.”

ADHD is the most common neuropsychiatric disorder in children, affecting an estimated 1 in 20 children worldwide. It may include hyperactive behavior, impulsivity and inattentive symptoms, with impaired skills in planning, organizing, and maintaining focus. Its cause is unknown, but it is known from family studies to be strongly influenced by genetics.

Drawing on DNA samples from the Children’s Hospital pediatric network, the researchers analyzed genomes from 335 ADHD patients and their families, compared to more than 2,000 unrelated healthy children. The team used highly automated gene-analyzing technology at the Center for Applied Genomics at Children’s Hospital, directed by Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., a co-leader of this study.

The study team found a similar quantity of CNVs in both groups. However, distinct patterns emerged. Among 222 inherited CNVs found in ADHD families but not in healthy subjects, a significant number were in genes previously identified in other neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome. The CNVs found in ADHD families also altered genes important in psychological and neurological functions such as learning, behavior, synaptic transmission and nervous system development.

“We took a systems biology approach, grouping genes into groups with common functions,” said White. “We found that the sets of genes more likely to be changed in ADHD patients and families affected functions that made sense biologically.” For instance, said White, the team found four deletions of DNA in a gene recently linked to restless legs syndrome, a type of sleep disorder common in adults with ADHD.

Another deletion occurred in a gene for a glutamate receptor. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter, a protein that carries signals in the brain. While ADHD medications act on dopamine and serotonin, which are also neurotransmitters, this new finding may suggest an important role for glutamate as well, at least for some ADHD patients.

“As we delve into the genetics of very complex diseases such as ADHD, we find many contributing genes, often differing from one family to another,” added White. “Studying the functions of different genes allows us to identify biological pathways that may be involved in this neuropsychiatric disorder.”

Some of the biological pathways involved in ADHD may also be common to other neurological conditions, say the researchers. Likewise, there is some overlap among the CNVs found in ADHD that also occur in autism, schizophrenia and other neurological disorders. This overlap was not surprising, said Elia, because ADHD patients frequently also have one of more of these disorders. However, as researchers learn more about specific genes in neurological conditions, the hope is that researchers might in the future personalize treatments to a patient’s own genetic profile, to achieve more targeted, specific therapies.

Elia and White stressed that much further work must be done before genetic findings lead to ADHD treatments.

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The Autism News English ADHD, ADHD genes, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, autistic, biological pathways, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, drug targets, Josephine Elia, Missing DNA segments, Molecular Psychiatry, neurodevelopment, Pediatric researchers, Peter S. White