Health Newsfeed # 697
THE MARKERS OF AUTISM
Although great progress has been made in recent years, autism remains one tough nut to crack for medical science. Children with autism don't form normal relationships with other people. They have trouble communicating and can fixate on repetitive movements and behaviors. Sometimes, but not always, there is mental retardation or other measurable brain damage.
It's not known exactly what causes autism, and while
there are some effective treatments for some patients, there's no cure. It is known that siblings of
autistic children are at higher risk for developing the disorder. Johns Hopkins psychiatry
professor Dr. Rebecca Landa is currently conducting a study of such brothers and sisters...some
as young as four months.
What I would really love to identify are a set of
measures that could be given in a doctor's office to screen children who are at risk for
significant developmental delays. That would be a big practical outcome of this study. :14
If doctors could accurately detect the earliest markers of autism, the reasoning goes, they could begin behavioral therapy and other treatments much sooner...when it does the most good. At the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, I'm Tom Haederle reporting. Copyright 1997 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.
