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Autism spectrum disorders news

Autism spectrum disorders

Why some autistic people don't speak

Around a third of autistic people—children and adults alike—are unable to share what they want using speech.

Autism spectrum disorders

Survey shows only 36% of neurologists identify motor deficits as part of autism diagnosis

A new UCLA Health study highlights concerning gaps in how child neurologists understand and address motor difficulties in children with autism, despite research showing these movement problems affect the majority of autistic ...

Medications

Five things to know about folinic acid and autism

As the Food and Drug Administration moves to make folinic acid an official treatment for a neurological condition associated with autism, parents want to know how it might help children with autism spectrum disorder.

Health

RFK Jr pushes fringe claim linking autism to circumcision

US President Donald Trump and his Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Thursday promoted another fringe theory about autism—this time linking it to circumcision or to pain medication given for the procedure.

Medications

Q&A: Autism and Tylenol

The federal administration offered health guidance at a press conference this week, urging pregnant women to avoid using the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen, marketed in the U.S. as Tylenol, saying use of the medication ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Identity distress fuels mental health issues in autism

A new study from the Department of Psychology at Durham University has found that identity distress (difficulty forming a cohesive identity) could be behind the higher rates of poor mental health experienced by autistic people.

Autism spectrum disorders

What research really says about autism

About two to three percent of all Americans—including adults and children—are autistic. With recent reports that autism rates are rising, potentially due to improved diagnosis, there's a lot of conflicting information ...

Autism spectrum disorders

Autism linked to elevated risk of Parkinson's disease

People with an autism diagnosis are at a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease early in life, a large-scale study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Neurology reports. The researchers believe that the two ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Daily mindfulness practice can reduce anxiety for autistic adults

Just 10 to 15 minutes of mindfulness practice a day led to reduced stress and anxiety for autistic adults who participated in a study led by scientists at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Participants in the study ...

Autism spectrum disorders

Transcranial pulse current stimulation found beneficial in autism

Twenty sessions of prefrontal-cerebellar transcranial pulsed current stimulation (tPCS) over four weeks in children aged 3 to 14 years with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can improve social functioning and sleep, according ...

Neuroscience

Compromised synapse-clearing ability linked to autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition in which affected individuals experience difficulties in social communication and exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior or interests.