Children with autism typically have four or five other conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new study suggests. And which conditions a child has influences whether she is diagnosed with autism sooner or later than average.

The findings indicate that clinicians should screen for these conditions in children with autism and consider treatment plans that take them into account.

“Pure autism is very rare,” says Norbert Soke, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The analysis is based on data from five U.S. states, collected by the CDC in 2010.

The conditions that tend to accompany autism may point to biologically distinct subgroups of the condition and give clues about its roots, Soke says.

The researchers analyzed data from 783 children with autism at age 4, and 1,091 children with autism at age 8. They documented the prevalence of 18 conditions and features, including single-gene conditions associated with autism, ADHD, sleep issues or gastrointestinal problems.

More than 95 percent of the children have at least one condition in addition to autism, the researchers found. About 69 percent of the 8-year-olds and 53 percent of the 4-year-olds have four or more conditions; 26 percent of 8-year-olds and 13 percent of 4-year-olds have seven or more.

Read more here

Kids on the autism spectrum want to play and have fun like any other child, but going to a birthday party or even a playdate can be a challenge.

Executive Director for the Phoenix Center Julie Mower stopped by with some tips on how you can make everyone more comfortable, some of which can be found below:

Provide frequent breaks from stimuli such as noise, light or movement (lighting can be adjusted to prevent overstimulation, as well)
Parents of children with autism should clearly communicate and discuss with their child what will happen on the playdate beforehand and provide rules, boundaries and plenty of preparation.
Bring one or two toys that your child is familiar that he/she would be interested in playing with other children. Practice “play” and turn-taking as a way of preparing your child with autism for an upcoming playdate.
Parents of neurotypical children should also clearly communicate what will happen on the playdate beforehand and provide rules, boundaries and plenty of preparation.

Read the full article and watch the video here.

A mother is enraged and heartbroken after a neighbor at The Plaza condo in Bal Harbour posted a discriminatory letter on her door targeting her daughter who has autism.

Leah Solomon said her 16-year-old daughter Bathsheva has severe autism and has the intelligence quotient of a 4-year-old.

The letter – which said it spoke on the behalf of 300 neighbors at the condo – said Bathsheva is “large and hefty,” adding that she has “major issues.”

“Her lack of impulse control, screaming and outbursts are not acceptable,” the letter reads. “We are not responsible for your daughter’s diagnosis

Read the full article here

We’ve gotten much better at integration since the start of the autism wave, but it comes with risks, too.

I used to work for an autism treatment program, but now I work on an addiction and detox unit. Recently, I was sent a video from a series posted by the Des Moines Register titled “The Lost Boys of Heroin.” The video featured an anguished mother telling the story of her son’s overdose, summed up by the caption: “Richard, was a bright young man who loved fixing computers and navigating the web.

He began using heroin to cope with the social stresses that came from having Asperger’s.”

Twenty years ago, the “autism epidemic” was making headlines and felt like a crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released graphs illustrating steep increases in autism spectrum diagnoses (ASD). Articles, documentaries, news specials, and websites devoted to the autism epidemic dominated the cultural landscape. Celebrities, politicians, doctors, and writers publicly shared their or their children’s diagnoses. The increase in ASD had our attention, and we argued over vaccines, diagnostic criteria, and gluten-free diets. Meanwhile, prescription opioids and cheap potent heroin infiltrated our small cities, rural towns, and upscale suburbs. It is not a surprise that the autism and opioid epidemics intersect. If the rise in autism diagnoses was thought to be a crisis 20 years ago, we may be about to experience the second wave of that crisis.

Read the full article here