Doctors MayBe Missing Signs of Autism in Well-Child Visits

 The 10 to 20 minutes of a typical well-child visit isn’t enough time to reliably detect a young child’s risk of autism, a new study suggests.

“When decisions about autism referral are made based on brief observations alone, there is a substantial risk that even experts may miss a large percentage of children who need a referral for further evaluation,” said lead study author Terisa Gabrielsen. She conducted the study while at the University of Utah but is now an assistant professor in the department of counseling, psychology and special education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

New MRI Could Lead to Early Diagnosis of Autism

SALT LAKE CITY -- A new tool that could lead to early detection of autism just arrived at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute. Doctors say the earlier it is detected, the better the chances treatment therapies will work.

The 20-thousand pound magnetic resonance imagining machine is in the newly constructed wing of the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute. It's a higher powered MRI that offers new hope to Utah parents who have children with autism.

Quality of Life for People With Autism

Twenty years after first being assessed in a long-term autism study, 41 Utahns with the disorder had a higher social outcome than those in similar studies, University of Utah psychiatry researchers have reported [Autism Research, 2(2): 109-118].
Although the researchers can't yet explain why the follow-up study showed the Utah group fared better overall in living independently, developing social relationships, and in some cases even showing higher IQs than 20 years ago, the results offer hope for many with a childhood diagnosis of autism, according to Megan A. Farley, PhD, the study's first author and a research associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
"This is an amazing group of people who, in many cases, did a lot more than their parents were told they would ever do," Dr. Farley commented of those who participated in the follow-up study. "This gives a lot of hope for younger people with autism and average-range IQs."

Utah Researchers Develop Genetic Map for Down Syndrome

Researchers at the University of Utah have developed a high-resolution genetic map that outlines the development of diseases often associated with Down syndrome.
Down syndrome individuals typically face a host of problems such as intellectual disabilities, heart defects and Alzheimer's disease. The map, produced by researchers at the U. Brain Institute and colleagues at Yale University, may help direct future studies and clinical treatments for a wide range of birth defects related to the disability.