New Scientist; Glasgow Herald, 18 and 19/06/2003

Children who develop autism may do so because they have problems processing the toxic metal mercury, researchers have suggested.

Researchers in Louisiana looked at mercury levels in the baby hair of children who later developed autism. They were found to have far lower levels of mercury than children who did not have the condition, according to Britain's New Scientist magazine.

The researchers say this could be because autistic children's bodies cannot make use of metals such as mercury properly, or because they have trouble excreting the metal from their body.

A group of parents in the United States and Canada are suing health authorities because they believe thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, could have caused their children's autism.

The triple MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, which some parents fear is linked to autism, does not contain thimerosal.

Experts are divided over whether there could be a link between mercury and autism. Some say that more studies need to be carried out before a connection can be confirmed.

But others, such as Louisiana-based Dr Amy Holmes, who carried out this latest research, believe there is a causal link.

Dr Holmes obtained baby hair cuttings which had been taken when children were around 18 months old. She analysed mercury levels in cuttings from 94 autistic children and 45 other children The average level of mercury in baby hair of children later diagnosed as autistic was 0.47 parts per million, compared to 3.63 per million in the other children. The more severe the children's autism, the lower the mercury levels found.

Most of the mercury came from the children's mothers in the form of fillings, injections containing the thimerosal or through eating a lot of fish.

In the group of non-autistic children, mercury levels rose in line with their mother's exposure.  But levels in the baby hair of the autistic children were low even when their mother's exposure was high.

The researchers say that one explanation could be that autistic children's bodies are unable to make use of metals properly, so they could also be deficient in metals which are needed for brain development such as zinc, iron and copper. Alternatively, they suggest, some children might have problems excreting mercury. Most of the metal is excreted through urine and faeces.

NEW YORK STATE, USA: The University of Rochester Medical Center is about to test the theory that symptoms of autism can be reduced in children by eliminating the amount of gluten and dairy products they eat.

Thanks to a five-year, US$7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, UR and seven other research centres are embarking on the nation’s most extensive study of how children respond to various treatments for autism.

With awareness of autism on the rise, the NIH is seeking a broad, scientific review of treatments to determine which ones are most effective. 

"Autism treatment is very expensive financially and emotionally - and no single approach works for all children," said Dr Patricia M. Rodier, UR professor of obstetrics and gynecology and the principal investigator on the university’s autism project. "If we could predict in advance which children would benefit from available treatments and which would not, children could be matched to the best treatments available." 

In addition to the diet test, UR will plot brain activity to discover why some children with autism exhibit little or no facial expression. Also, a behavioural study will collect data on IQ, social and language skills, repetitive movements and other characteristics of children with autism. 

But what may garner the most attention is the study on gluten, which is commonly found in wheat, rye and oats; and the protein casein, found in many dairy products. Some parents with autistic children believe that casein and proteinaceous gluten produce symptoms of autism by disrupting the biochemical processes in the brain. 

"I know parents who swear by it," said Bonnie Watson of Pittsford, whose 8-year-old daughter, Adrienne, has autism. "Most of them believe that eliminating these proteins increases their children’s eye contact and level of interaction with others. But give them one glass of milk and their behaviour worsens." 

A special diet - free of gluten and casein - is not something that Watson is willing to try for Adrienne right now. Adrienne’s behaviour is such that she won’t eat many foods, and getting her to eat a regimented diet is beyond her ability, Watson said. "Maybe when she gets older. By then, this study might be able to give us an idea of what’s really going on with these proteins," Watson said. 

Dr Rodier has been delving into the roots of autism since 1994. In 2000, she and a team of UR investigators announced the discovery of a gene that could increase a person’s susceptibility to autism. The gene, known as HOXA1, may play a crucial role in early brain development, doing much of its work during three or four days in the third week of pregnancy. 

At least 16 of every 10,000 babies are born with autism or a related disorder. This means that as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism. 

San Francisco Chronicle, 14/05/2003

Autism cases in California nearly doubled over the past four years to more than 20,000 - a phenomenon whose cause may be difficult to pinpoint because it is not related to population increases or the way the disorder is diagnosed, a state study said on May 13.

The study, conducted by the California Department of Developmental Services, tracked the number of autism cases referred to 21 regional centers where patients and their families receive government-funded services. 

The report showed that the agency's caseload increased by 97 per cent - from 10,360 in December 1998 to 20,337 four years later. 

Once a rare disorder, autism was now more prevalent than childhood cancer, diabetes and Down syndrome, said the study's author, Dr Ron Huff, senior psychologist at the department and lead author of both reports.The spectacular rate of increase for autism dwarfed rises of 35 per cent to 49 per cent for new cases of mental retardation, cerebral palsy and epilepsy in California, said Dr Huff.  "We are convinced that this is for real. It has to be taken seriously." 

He added: "We were hoping and praying it would go down. But it's accelerating slightly. Everything we see now says we might as well assume that it will continue. It would be risky not to assume that." 

Dr Huff's study was a follow-up to an earlier report ordered by California lawmakers which had shown a 273 per cent rise in autism cases statewide between 1987 to 1998. 

"All through the 1970s to the mid-1980s, we were looking at a couple of hundred (autistic) kids each year," Dr Huff said. "Over the next decade, we were looking at thousands of new cases each year. Parents were reporting anecdotally that there were a lot more of these kids out there that anyone believed." 

MELBOURNE, Australia: A new trial at the Royal Children's Hospital here hopes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the anti-depressant Zoloft - which can help to control obsessive-compulsive disorders in adults - in treating Asperger's syndrome.

Simon Dafter, who has Asperger's, has his sights set on becoming a policeman, or perhaps building a town. When he was about three, his mother, Trisha, noticed a sudden, distinct change in his personality. "He'd been a lovely, placid little boy and he just started getting stubborn," she said.

Children with Asperger's, like Simon, are often intellectually very bright, but have difficulty seeing how certain behaviour affects other people, and they tend to have a narrow set of interests.

Dr John Mathai, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who is directing the new trial at the Royal Children's Hospital, said he hoped Zoloft would help control repetitive and aggressive behaviour. The hospital already has 10 children on the trial, but hopes to recruit up to 60 children, aged seven to 15. Half will be given the drug and the other half will not.

"What we expect to see is that the children on the active drug ... will be improving their social relationships and be more manageable," Dr Mathai said.

It is believed about one in 500 children has Asperger's syndrome. Simon is not on the trial but has been taking another anti-depressant for two years, which, his mother said, had had a positive effect. "He's a lot calmer, you can reason with him, he's not as aggressive."

"Much less aggressive," agreed Simon. Now he's doing more school work, instead of tearing up pages, as he once did.

Simon, too, is a fan of the new medication. "They work really well, make me feel much better, more co-operative, more agreeable," he said.

Simon's real passion is science - last year he gained a high distinction in a national science competition. So when offered the chance of a tour of the labs at the hospital, he wasn't about to knock it back. "Yes!" he said excitedly. "You won't be able to stop me!"

NEW YORK, USA: Children with autism often have difficulty understanding spoken language, and new research released on April 14 may help explain why. 

Patterns of brain activity in autistic children as they listen to sounds reveal that they do indeed hear and listen to language, but fail to pay attention to the sounds the words make. In contrast, brain scans showed that children with autism appeared to both hear and pay attention to musical tones of a similar complexity to language. 

These results contradict previous theories which suggested that children with autism do not learn language because they are unable to take in and process complex sounds. 

All of the children included in the study were between the ages of 6 and 12 and were considered to be high functioning, meaning that they had an IQ above 70 and could speak some words. 

But without attention to the sounds words make, learning fully to speak and understand language is impossible, the study author, Dr Rita Ceponiene of the University of California at San Diego, told Reuters Health. "Attending to something is a necessary prerequisite for learning," she said. 

Dr Ceponiene said that the findings could also one day help researchers identify infants with autism earlier, and children who were diagnosed earlier with the condition often fared better. 

However, she cautioned that much more work was needed before researchers could provide parents with new tools to help their children with autism to learn language. "This is a step. It's quite an informative step. But, unfortunately, it's still far from giving something that's applicable on the everyday basis to these parents," Dr Ceponiene said.