Autism

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is one of the federal government’s leading supporters of biomedical research on brain and nervous system disorders. The NINDS conducts research in its laboratories at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. As part of the Children’s Health Act of 2000, the NINDS and three sister institutes have formed the NIH Autism Coordinating Committee to expand, intensify, and coordinate NIH’s autism research.

Many parents are very aware of the fact that autism is becoming more and more common and most are not sure how to spot it if their children do have it. There are common signs to look for which we have previously listed, but somtimes it is still hard to determine without further investigation. This could be becuase the child has a mild symptom or because they have a previous handicap that will mask it. It is always important to take your child to your doctor where they can run a series of their own tests to determine the diagnosis for you.

There is a subgroup of children with autism that appear to develop typically for a period of time, and then loses social or language skills, or even regresses. A recent study by Vargas and co-workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital has demonstrated that this regressive type of autism is associated with chronic brain inflammation as shown by an abnormal production of inflammatory cytokines among other abnormalities.