AUTISM | +70 articles

[mr peabody]

What one man learned when he treated his autism symptoms with psilocybin

by Jesse Noakes | VICE | 20 Dec 2018

"That trip was like an '80s movie starring me. I saw what my life could be like, without computers and all that rubbish. It gave me the most hope I've ever known."

The morning after his first big trip with psilocybin truffles, Alyx came downstairs beaming and looked his support worker straight in the eyes. In the seven years Claire had been working with him, he'd never been able to meet her gaze before. It was why he'd come to Amsterdam to take psychedelics.

Diagnosed with autism at age five, Alyx, who is 26 now, had been largely housebound since leaving high school near Oxford, in the UK. His social anxiety was so bad that he couldn't talk to the customers for his small computer repair business, so his mother handled them while Alyx only dealt with the machines. The rest of the time he was gaming, up to twelve hours a day. "I spent my whole life isolated and alone," he tells me. "I'd wake up, run computer stuff all day, game, go to bed, and then do the same thing the next day. I didn't realize I was stuck in that loop."

Alyx also found it impossible to speak to people, to talk on the phone, to leave the house by himself. He couldn't look at his mother, he had acute anxiety, he spent 12-16 hours a day, every day, online. He was in specialist schools until he got himself kicked out deliberately at 16. Alyx also, as he tells me, couldn't understand or experience emotions clearly, found body language inscrutable, didn't understand subtext such as sarcasm.

Then, towards the end of 2016, Alyx read a couple of stories about psychedelics and autism, in an article about a clinical trial of MDMA, and a guy on Reddit who said magic mushrooms had helped immensely with his social anxiety, which filled him with hope. "I told Claire, 'okay, we have to go to Amsterdam, because it's the only place they're legal, and we have to take magic mushrooms' and we did."

Actually, they used truffles. Legal in the Netherlands, they are the root system of the mushrooms, and Claire was there purely to support Alyx while he tripped (she owns and runs a company providing support to people with autism), taking a big professional risk. Neither want to use their last name as a result. They spent months researching the ins and outs of psychedelic therapy, and found that there was a fairly simple protocol developed in clinical trials. Two substances, MDMA (the recreational drug most commonly known as Molly or ecstasy), and the psilocybin (the psychedelic substance) in magic mushrooms, share similar therapeutic traits, says Ben Sessa, a clinical psychiatrist who has researched the two substances at Imperial College, London. "They are both equally, interchangeably useful," he says.

In the recently published MDMA study Alyx read about, 12 participants on the autism spectrum had two all-day sessions, with either MDMA or a placebo, in a comfortable therapy room with music, art, and flowers. If they wanted to talk, or dance, they could do that with the two therapists who were with them throughout; if they wanted to kick back with the headphones and see where their minds went, that was all good too. There were regular therapy sessions before, between and afterwards to make sense and meaning of their drug experiences.

The study was tiny, more a proof-of-concept than anything, but the results were promising. For the eight autistic participants given two sessions with 75 mg, 100 mg or 125 mg of MDMA, social anxiety levels reduced by 50 percent. Significantly, they stayed this way when measured again six months later. The placebo group had much smaller reductions as measured by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (a system created by a psychiatrist to assess what role social anxiety plays in one's life) until they had further sessions with actual MDMA and saw similar improvements.

The study was based on the doctoral work of co-investigator Alicia Danforth, who previously worked on a study of psilocybin for anxiety in patients with terminal cancer. She decided to investigate the social experiences of autistic adults taking MDMA recreationally. Of the 100 she surveyed, around 90 reported better social communication and increased empathy and connection.

Danforth acknowledges that her findings are preliminary. "We hope that the good safety profile and encouraging reduction in social anxiety symptoms will inspire funding for new and larger studies," she says. "We're looking forward to sharing what we learned with other researchers."

It's important to note that this type of treatment shouldn't be tried at home without supervision. "This study was done in a controlled clinical setting in conjunction with intense psychotherapy," says Christina Nicolaidis, professor of Social Work at Portland State University and editor of Autism in Adulthood, and unaffiliated with the study. "It should not in any way be taken as a reason to try using MDMA to treat social anxiety outside of a clinical setting," she says. It's an interesting line of inquiry that deserves further research, but there are many steps needed before it can be considered as a potential treatment."

Claire's decision to support Alyx therapeutically, outside of a clinical setting, was incredibly difficult. "Alyx was so set upon doing it by this point, so passionate about it, that I could tell it was something he was going to do with or without me," she tells me. "He was a consenting adult, he'd done his research. I wanted to make sure that if he was going to do it, he'd be as safe as possible." They'd also done some prep work ahead of time and throughout the process: They shared everything with his parents, social workers, and clinical psychologist, who organized a mental capacity assessment for Alyx as a precaution.

The first trip Alyx took, with a small dose of truffles they bought in a smart-shop near their Airbnb in April 2017, dissolved into a four-hour giggling fit. Claire says it was the first time she'd seen him genuinely laugh. "True, emotional, proper laughter. He was so much more animated, and could talk more fluently."

A few weeks later, back in Amsterdam, he tripled the dose to 45 g, which would blow the roof off for most people. Alyx felt like it "it installed the ability to feel emotion." A couple of hours in, he was listening to a movie soundtrack when the emotion in the music suddenly became available to him, like a switch had been hit. Looking at Claire, he could read the feelings in her face like he'd never been able to before. "It was just tears, for hours, that I was able to do that," he says. "Everything just flowed naturally, and I didn't have to think about it at all."

The important thing is that he could still do it once the trip was over. Claire had spent years trying to help Alyx understand what he called "people stuff," conversational inflection, facial expressions, dual meanings. "He didn't understand emotion at all, and so he didn't have the language to express what he was thinking and feeling," Claire says. "But the psilocybin somehow gave him the skills to do it. He was suddenly able to empathize with other people, and have full conversations."

Clearly, there are differences between Danforth's trial and what Alyx did. For starters, although she has a degree in psychology with a masters in autism, Claire is not a psychotherapist. However, they had the benefit of a very close relationship forged over years of constant contact. Alyx is adamant that he couldn't have done it without her.

Again, while MDMA and psilocybin are different drugs, there's a large overlap when they're used for therapy, according to Albert Garcia-Romeu, a research associate at Johns Hopkins University who led a study giving psilocybin therapy to smokers, and found that 80 percent had quit six months after the trial ended. "They're different beasts, but I think they can work towards the same end," he says, adding that similar mechanisms include "helping to promote therapeutic rapport, enhancing pro-social feelings, reducing fear and anxiety related with revisiting past trauma, and improving mood."

Sessa, who is leading the latter trial at Bristol University, tells me that the effects of MDMA for his patients have been surprisingly similar to the classic psychedelic experience. "They've all reported more of a kind of mind-blowing peak experience, in which they talk about 'I can see the light, I can see my problems in a new way."

Alyx's peak experience took place in a Delorean park at sunset overlooking a futuristic cityscape. It came after he'd spent an indeterminate length of time in a state of "no self, no environment," your standard ego death. "The best I can say is that the rest of that trip was like an '80s movie starring me. I saw what my life could be like, without computers and all that rubbish. It gave me the most hope I've ever known."

Garcia-Romeu explains how the two sides of Alyx's big trip, the peak experience (a moment or phase of euphoria) and the ego loss (an intense feeling of connection to the world around you), worked together to allow positive change. "Addictions, whether that be online gaming or drug use, are these kind of rigid patterns that we get locked into. The ego loss clears the way to allow the emergence of these insights. In that way they're very much related." Claire sees Alyx's gaming addiction as a coping strategy. "Social interaction was such an awful experience for Alyx, so you can completely see why it was too stressful, too much to process, so he ran his server and had control, so nothing could go wrong."

When he got back home, Alyx decided to set his house in order. The server went, as did the computer detritus that once covered every surface. In came bean bags, lava lamps, and Christmas lights, transforming the room. "I tried to make it as trippy as possible. Before, my whole existence was maintaining that server, every day. I didn't have a concept of anything else... And now, I haven't played an online game in over a year. All I want to do is sit on the sofa, smoke a bong, and chat."

Danforth emphasises to me that MDMA does not "cure autism." It's crucial to her that this message is clear. And for people with less high-functioning autism this is may not have nearly the same effect. Alyx agrees, but says his psychedelic experiences have changed how he views it. "Before the trip, I used to think it was a disease I could never escape, and that I was sort of sub-human or broken," he says. "Now, I know that I've got problems but I'm doing the best I can to work with them and fix them. I can't ever cure it, but I can make it a lot easier to live with."

His personal relationships have changed dramatically. He's gone on vacations with new friends, and at a psychedelic seminar in London he told his story in front of hundreds of onlookers. He's also blogged extensively about his trips. "I'm a totally different person now," he says. "Before this I didn't really exist, and now I actually have a story to tell, I have a reason to live. There's life where there wasn't. I like telling everyone."

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/articl...n-he-treated-his-autism-symptoms-with-shrooms​

 

[mr peabody]

Oh yes, this is EXCELLENT! I'm so glad to see this being researched, without some official scumbags doing their utmost to trip researchers up and bring them crashing down before they get the chance to help anyone with anything, just because of their almost psychotic fear of psychoactives, especially ones they don't have fingers in a tax-pie for.

Alicia danforth seemed nice to me, helped out with some questions for her, think it must have been a year or two ago, got the feeling she was a good egg, so to speak, and not unintelligent

I'm autistic myself, the 'classical' or Kanner's variety, and, although I've never for a moment thought it a disease, or that I was in any way dysfunctional [quite the opposite, as a kid, I have to admit, that I saw neurotypicals and felt pity for them, compassion, and sorrow that they could never share in the beautiful intensity and vibrancy of the world as seen through the eyes of an autie or aspie. I still do. Not in a contemptuous way, but it saddens me that whilst there are therapies like this being developed for my kind, there's no such help even THOUGHT OF, for neurotypicals, it breaks my heart.

I was dx'd as a kid, quite early, and I was absolutely squeebly that day

'people stuff'...lol, I know what he means there, although 'doing social' or 'doing NT' are the terms I've generally used, still, meaning pretty much the same.
Although I certainly get sarcasm, (actually I can be a right snarky bastard at times, when needs be), or as I've heard it said by other spesh folk 'XYZ left me totally out of social spoons'

I did attend two mainstream schools, at primary age but it was obvious they were not for me and neither was I, for them. Just wasn't going to work. And besides,fucking awful. Not even any girls I could like (I've always ONLY liked either autie, MR, aspie, or autie/aspie+MR girls. We just get on better. Ideally Kanner's girls with an intellect to keep me on my toes. I've nothing against NTs, well, not as a group, certain individuals of course, but not because of their neurotype, but, I have, on the other hand, dated off the spectrum, with girls who weren't MR and it has been an unmitigated disaster without exception.

I seem to attract two kinds of people

1-special ed girls of some kind or another, usually autistic, and good, loving people, who I've been happy being with, and made happy in return. Or
2-neurotypical girls, but messed up. I always seem to attract the really, really fucked up psychobitches and total screwballs.

Why? bugger me if I know, but thats how it seems. Spesh and happy, or NT and stuck with bat-shit mental that nobody can cope with in a relationship, just people too fucking broken to be relationship-capable, and generally vicious along with it. To hell with that, I just, now, only date spesh people. Just because the rule and exception ratio is in favour of that, and besides, I'm a lot more attracted to spesh girls than those who aren't.

First secondary was a classic/Kanner's autism school.

I remember still, after a trip up to yorkshire, to see my grandmother, going out for a walk, up the sheep fields, picking wax-caps of various kinds, meadow waxcap (Camarylophyllus pratensis (sp?) formerly in either Hygrophorus or Hygrocybe, large, orange, decurrent gills, meadow lover, very, very tasty) Scarlet hoods (Hygrocybe coccinea/coccineus), bright lurid scarlet blood-red and again, tasty as.

What granny dearest, nor parental units knew, on the other hand, was that I'd been harvesting liberty caps

Never tripped before, other than low doses of fly agaric (thats one of those 'autie things' in my case. Always have been a polymath, but especially, and earliest of all, I've been a fanatical mycologist and mycophage; taught myself, according to my grandfather on my mom's side, to read, using mycology textbooks, at 4yo. So mycology is, well, I've a good idea, at 32 now, of what's out there and whether or not I can eat it, and I have since I was tiny
Botany came with it, and chemistry as soon as I had the means to scrounge money for the beginnings of a lab; which I daresay, is my pride and joy, my sanctum sanctorum, somewhere I, and nobody else in the house, will go, so no matter how I'm feeling, if I want some privacy, I've got it, among the flasks and still-pots, vac pumps, rotavap etc.)

So, there was a trip (as in visit to) to yorkshire, to a hostel by the name of 'stones' IIRC, planned by the school, taking us up there for about a week, give or take a bit.

There, we kids, we'd organized a midnight feast (trying to organize auties....its like trying to herd fucking cats), while I had another item on the menu just beforehand, if you get my drift.

Tripped, fairly hard, comparing with trips on mushrooms later in life, presumably anyone noticing just put things like sensory stimulation, running feet up and down over the sharp edges of a bed frame side and corner etc. down to me being a spazz (no offense to others on the spectrum, I just, well I spend a fair bit of time with an online autie/aspie community, and we use the term of ourselves, take it and own it.)

And over the next week, about the timeframe of the first beginning to getting going properly; I could tell my communications skills, NT-reading skills were improving, so fast, dramatically, I could TELL that it was happening, actually seeing it in myself.

It was...catalytic, is the best way I could describe it; in improving neurological capabilities, social skills, all sorts of similar related capabilities, improving, dramatically and rapidly.

As for Alicia Danforth's statement of MDMA not curing autism....GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The thought of a 'cure' for autism, its something a great many of us find a nightmarish, repugnant prospect. Because it'd be inflicted on people before we are able to say 'no', or at least to enforce that 'no'. Maybe even in-utero. Likewise prenatal testing; for when prenatal testing for Down's syndrome became available, women were pressured to take doctors up on it, and have the test.

Result? something like 80-85% of Down's people were killed before ever even being born.

Not because they had a disease, not because of something that would bring them lifelong suffering and misery and pain.

But because their mothers were pressured to believe their children were less than the 'perfect' kids they were/are 'entitled to'

A permanent 'cure' would be an abomination. To turn us NT. Jesus no!

There are so SO many of us, who would fight to the bitter end to prevent such a travesty from ever being. The very idea is noxious, horrific, a thing that should not, MUST not ever be brought into the realms of reality.

I know many who, despite there being bits and shits of inconvenient stuff along with our neurotype, sensory overloads, specific textures or sounds that are just...vile, go right through us like rusty nails down a blackboard, but just the same, we do not WANT 'curing'

One cures a disease. One does not cure that which is not a disease. When people suffer from autism, chances are, it's the structure of the environment they are in, being, as a result of a numbers game, NTs being more common, although our numbers are rising and quickly. Not quickly enough, but quickly.

And also, the attitudes of others towards spesh people. The often lack of awareness, That can often lead to suffering. But autism isn't a disease. If the right structures, right opportunities are worked into society, so that we have the same equal chance others do, in life, ensured us. No more, no less,just efforts made to ensure that we have the chances in life others do, such as in employment*, that sort of thing can often result in people being miserable. But when things go right, it is a gift, a precious thing, and I know I for one would HATE to be '; for to do such a terrible thing would strip a man of the very core of his being, of his very essence, his spirit, his being, his soul. Autism isn't something that is 'contracted' like an illness. It is something one is born with, and one as much IS as HAS. Autism is integral to the autie/aspie. Without, then they are nobody.

To flay someone of their soul..I can think of few things more grim and abhorrent.

Limpet_Chicken​

 

[mr peabody]

Processed foods may hold key to the rise in autism

Drs. Saleh Naser and Latifa Abdelli | University of Central Florida | Neurosience News | 20 Jun 2019

Eating processed food which contains Propionic Acid (PPA) during pregnancy may affect neural stem cell development in the fetal brain. Excessive PPA reduces the number of neurons and over-produces glial cells, causing inflammation. Additionally, PPA shortens neural pathways. The combination of damaged pathways and reduced neurons may be associated with behavioral deficits associated with ASD.

With the number of children diagnosed with autism on the rise, the need to find what causes the disorder becomes more urgent every day. UCF researchers are now a step closer to showing the link between the food pregnant women consume and the effects on a fetus’ developing brain.

Drs. Saleh Naser, Latifa Abdelli and UCF undergraduate research assistant Aseela Samsam have identified the molecular changes that happen when neuro stem cells are exposed to high levels of an acid commonly found in processed foods. In a study published June 19 in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, the UCF scientists discovered how high levels of Propionic Acid (PPA), used to increase the shelf life of packaged foods and inhibit mold in commercially processed cheese and bread, reduce the development of neurons in fetal brains.

Dr. Naser, who specializes in gastroenterology research at the College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, began the study after reports showed that autistic children often suffer from gastric issues such as irritable bowel syndrome. He wondered about a possible link between the gut and the brain and began examining how the microbiome — or gut bacteria — differed between people with autism and those who do not have the condition.

“Studies have shown a higher level of PPA in stool samples from children with autism and the gut microbiome in autistic children is different,” Dr. Naser said. “I wanted to know what the underlying cause was.”

In the lab, the scientists found exposing neural stem cells to excessive PPA damages brain cells in several ways. First, the acid disrupts the natural balance between brain cells by reducing the number of neurons and over-producing glial cells. While glial cells help develop and protect neuron function, too many glia cells disturb connectivity between neurons. They also cause inflammation, which has been noted in the brains of autistic children.

Excessive amounts of the acid also shorten and damage pathways that neurons use to communicate with the rest of the body. The combination of reduced neurons and damaged pathways impede the brain’s ability to communicate, resulting in behaviors that are often found in children with autism, including repetitive behavior, mobility issues and inability to interact with others.

Previous studies have proposed links between autism and environmental and genetic factors, but Drs. Naser and Abdelli say their study is the first to discover the molecular link between elevated levels of PPA, proliferation of glial cells, disturbed neural circuitry and autism. The 18-month study was self-funded by UCF.

PPA occurs naturally in the gut and a mother’s microbiome changes during pregnancy and can cause increases in the acid. But Drs. Naser and Abdelli said eating packaged foods containing the acid can further increase PPA in the woman’s gut, which then crosses to the fetus.

More research needs to be done before drawing clinical conclusions. Next, the research team will attempt to validate its findings in mice models by seeing if a high PPA maternal diet causes autism in mice genetically predisposed to the condition. There is no cure for autism, which affects about 1 in 59 children, but the scientists hope their findings will advance studies for ways to prevent the disorder.

Processed foods may hold key to rise in autism - Neuroscience News

Eating processed food which contains Propionic Acid (PPA) during pregnancy may affect neural stem cell development in the fetal brain. Excessive PPA reduces the number of neurons and over-produces glial cells, causing inflammation. Additionally, PPA shortens neural pathways. The combination of...

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

Psychedelics and autism*

by Patrick Smith | The Third Wave | 10 Jan 2017

Autism is a social disorder that can sometimes be severely debilitating and distressing for both autistic people and their carers. Current approaches to managing autism are varied and often ineffective. As with many other mental health conditions, autism could potentially be managed with psychedelic therapy.

Unfortunately, there are no large-scale studies on the potential of psychedelics in the management of autism. Back in the '60s and ’70s, a handful of studies experimented with giving psychedelics to autistic children; but all suffered from severe design flaws that make their results practically useless. Unsurprisingly, the reactions of children to doses of LSD were erratic and didn’t tell the researchers anything about the use of psychedelics to manage autism.

A 2013 survey performed by scientist Alicia Danforth on hundreds of autistic adults showed that those who had taken MDMA reported significant improvements in problems with social anxiety. Dozens of reports suggested that the psychedelic drug was directly responsible for improvements in wellbeing:

For the first time in my life it felt like I was the driver. Certain things I marked as impossible became entirely plausible. Social interaction became more of an intimate conquest to get to know and understand as many humans as possible. My life took an incredible 180 degree turn, and now I find I am able to look at life in a way I never dreamed possible. I self evaluate every week to work on my flaws. I consciously push myself out my comfort zone to feel alive. I have life ambitions now that I’m extremely passionate about achieving. I just feel all around healthier. Able to make sense of my surrounding, better understand friends and family, work without feeling super depressed.

---

My senses don’t get overloaded anymore. I used to feel pain touching rough surfaces. Now it feels a little uncomfortable, but not to the point where it physically hurts due to the stimulation. Hearing several sounds at once doesn’t give me a headache. Social skills seem improved, as well as reduction of social anxiety. While I was on acid I noticed I had a much harder time expressing myself with language than I do normally. However, I didn’t experience any frustration when I had a hard time expressing myself, I felt pleasure instead. This effect has lasted a while, and I am enjoying it.

---

I guess it broke down barriers, is how I would describe it. It felt like up to that point, I just sort of always lived in a shell. The way I isolated from people, I just sort of tore all that down. I said, ‘There’s no need for there to be a barrier.’

---

Since tripping I’ve just become a happier person overall. My depression symptoms have gotten much better and social interaction isn’t so bad anymore. While I still often dislike talking to people, it’s really much better than it was before I started tripping.

---

I had symptoms, although more hyper empathy than no empathy (... reclusiveness, compulsive/obsessive behavior, social awkwardness, and language/speech issues). Psychedelics have helped me cure those almost entirely.

*From the article here :
https://thethirdwave.co/psychedelics-autism/

​

 

[mr peabody]

The effects of ketamine on people with ASD

by Martin Silvertant | Embrace ASD

The experience of ketamine for people with ASD more or less depends on what the reason for taking ketamine is. One can use ketamine for:

- Treatment of autism and/or depression
- Preoperative sedative
- Recreational use

Treatment of (severe) autism

Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, has been purported by some as a possible treatment for autism. One study from 2015 indicates:

Here, we present a single case study in which a patient with a severe intellectual disability was said to have demonstrated a dramatic, albeit short-lived, remission of the core symptoms of autism following adventitious treatment with ketamine.

Although this anecdote is encouraging, we argue that further analysis of ketamine as a treatment for autism is needed.

Ketamine has also been proven to be a successful antidepressant treatment, so it is probable that the use of Ketamine can help people with ASD as well, either as a way of managing autism symptoms, or alleviating symptoms of depression.

Ketamine as an anesthetic

Ketamine has also been found to be a good anesthetic when it comes managing autistic children pre-operation, and oral Ketamine (6–7 mg/kg) has been found to be the most reliable preoperative sedative for these patients.

When it comes to children with severe autism, mixing Ketamine with Dr Pepper may be required. A case study from 2009 reports the following:

A 16-year-old, 80-kg, 190-cm-tall male with severe autism was scheduled for dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia. During a dental rehabilitation procedure under general anesthesia 1 year previously, the patient had refused to cooperate and drink his premedication and had become very agitated in the preoperative holding area. This necessitated physical restraint and forcible intramuscular injection with ketamine to sedate him.

On the day of the dental procedure [1 year later], the patient was pacing back and forth in his pre-operative room and appeared anxious. He was clearly agitated and withdrew to a corner when the anesthesiologist entered his room. He even punched one of the nurses when she tried to talk to him.

However, he refused to take the oral premedication mixed in sweet syrup. Learning that Dr Pepper was one of his favored beverages, we mixed the oral medications with 15 ml of Dr Pepper to mask the appearance and change the flavor of the drug. In this disguised form, the patient took the drug readily from his parents. He was then left undisturbed in his bed, and he fell asleep in 20 min.

Individualized perioperative plan

Research indicates that individualized perioperative plans are beneficial for sedation of children with ASD, and that the preoperative sedation increased with increasing severity level of ASD:

- Severity Level 1 (21 percent or Asperger’s (31 percent)
- Severity Level 2 (44 percent)
- Severity Level 3 (56 percent)

Cooperation at induction of anesthesia was:

- Severity Level 1 (98 percent)
- Asperger’s patients (93 percent)
- Severity Level 2 (85 percent)
- Severity Level 3 (85 percent)

Recreational use

Anecdote 1

The music clip that has apparently been playing for 9 minutes just ended. “What do you think?” I hear someone say from a distance. I suddenly “wake up” and look around me. I don’t know where I’ve been. I don’t think I was actually present when the music was playing. I dissociated.

I feel light. I feel like I am a bodyless head on a bedding of clouds. Reality is distance somehow, but intensely present at the same time. I feel warm and fuzzy. Just a head covered in clouds…

“Well?”

“Did you say something?”

Anecdote 2

She is 19 years old, and has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. She is a frequent recreational drug user, and reports that some drugs do not seem to have the same effects on her as in other people.

Synthetic psychedelic drugs like 2CB don’t seem to have an effect on her.

She also reports that Ketamine just makes her feel drunk. No dissociation. It does, however, disinhibit her, and causes her to engage in bad behaviors such as vandalism.

https://embraceasd.quora.com/The-effects-of-Ketamine-on-people-with-ASD​

 

[mr peabody]

MDMA-assisted therapy: A new treatment model for social anxiety in autistic adults

Alicia Danforth, Christopher Struble, Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Charles Grob

The first study of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of social anxiety in autistic adults commenced in the spring of 2014. The search for psychotherapeutic options for autistic individuals is imperative considering the lack of effective conventional treatments for mental health diagnoses that are common in this population. To date, MDMA has been administered to over 1133 individuals for research purposes without the occurrence of unexpected drug-related SAEs that require expedited reporting per FDA regulations. Now that safety parameters for limited use of MDMA in clinical settings have been established, a case can be made to further develop MDMA-assisted therapeutic interventions that could support autistic adults in increasing social adaptability among the typically developing population. As in the case with classic hallucinogens, MDMA catalyzes shifts toward openness and introspection that do not require ongoing administration to achieve lasting benefits. This infrequent dosing mitigates adverse event frequency and improves the risk/benefit ratio of MDMA, which may provide a significant advantage over medications that require daily dosing. Consequently, clinicians could employ new treatment models for social anxiety or similar types of distress administering MDMA on one to several occasions within the context of a supportive and integrative psychotherapy protocol.

This paper provides an overview of the rationale and to summarize the method for a pilot study of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of social anxiety in autistic adults. Multiple areas of investigation in autism research have paralleled MDMA research. Some examples include neurobiological studies, particularly on the effects of the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin, which are believed to play a role in interpersonal connection and bonding, and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Cognitive studies, such as investigations of the mechanisms of face recognition, also appear in the literature of both autism and MDMA research.

In healthy volunteers, MDMA administration acutely decreases activity in the left amygdala, a brain region involved in the interpretation of negative cues, and attenuates amygdalar response and emotional reactivity to angry faces. This action of MDMA is compatible with its reported reduction in fear of emotional injury or defensiveness. The multi-level effects of MDMA on brain circuits, monoaminergic neurotransmitters, and neurohormones that have been studied extensively in autistic individuals suggest that further study of the effects of MDMA in autistic populations is warranted. In addition, MDMA has been proposed as a treatment for anxiety disorders, which are prevalent in autistic individuals. The current review takes into account these areas of overlap and explores a parallel indication by studying MDMA-assisted therapy as an intervention for social anxiety in autistic adults.

Conclusions

Promising findings from early psychedelics studies with autistic minors, development of safer clinical research models and methods, clarification around optimal set and setting, and an abundance of self-reported accounts of potential benefits all support the case for initiating a pilot trial with MDMA-assisted therapy for autistic adults who have moderate to severe social anxiety. Researchers gradually and cautiously are exploring a broader range of potential risks and benefits of MDMA-assisted therapies. In the opinion of the authors, this is the optimal and responsible option for addressing the public health concerns that have been raised, as well as to investigate the potential of developing new and novel models for some psychiatric conditions that are refractory to conventional treatment. Informed understanding of the facts about MDMA, a psychotherapeutic compound known to enhance prosocial behaviors, is as relevant to clinicians, researchers, the public, and policymakers now as in any earlier point in its history.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584615000603​

 

[mr peabody]

College student finds relief through ketamine infusions

PASWFL Psychiatry | 16 Oct 2017

William Storey remembers a childhood filled with hopelessness and loneliness instead of birthday parties and bike rides. “I was abnormal at an age in which abnormality is very unhealthy,” states William, now 23.

The abrupt and dramatic cultural change caused by his family’s move from Maine to Georgia when he was eight complicated the challenges William already faced. Over the years, he’s been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, severe depression and Asperger’s syndrome, a higher – functioning form of autism.

Generally, Asperger’s patients struggle to communicate with and relate to others. They may lack empathy and have difficulty reading other people’s moods and making friends.

During his early years in private school, William felt isolated and misunderstood, especially by classmates, and by teachers who disciplined him for “being out of control.”

He explains the mindset of those teachers this way: “I like to think of it as, This nail doesn’t seem to be fitting into this particular piece of wood quite the same way the rest of them do, so we should probably hit it more.”

By the time he reached fourth grade, William wanted to die. “I hated my life,” he recalls. “I hated everything.” In seventh grade, William switched to a public school, where he thrived for two years. “I was a straight-A student,” he notes. “I was well-liked by my teachers. I had no social problems.” Halfway through his freshman year of high school, however, he “hit a breaking point.”

“I think a lot of it had to do with age, hormonal imbalances, feeling more ostracized from my peers,” William shares. “I had a handful of people that I was at least acquaintances with up until that point. But they stopped interacting with me as much when high school started, for their own reasons.”

He stayed behind when his classmates moved on to tenth grade. As William repeated his freshman year, his conflicts with teachers led school administrators to threaten expulsion if he caused further problems. He managed to finish ninth grade, then transferred to a “less academically rigorous” school.

“It was honestly kind of a joke,” he relates. “I barely did anything, and I still made straight A’s.”

Disappointed and frustrated, he entered an early enrollment program at the University of West Georgia. William lived in a dorm and worked on his high school studies and college classes at the same time.

“I did well the first year,” he points out. “The second year, I had similar problems to when I was in the ninth grade again. It resulted in my father pulling me out of the program and bringing me home.”

More than 18 months later, he was ready to return, but by that time, he was too old for high school. He obtained his GED, but West Georgia didn’t consider that sufficient to re-admit him until William and his family successfully appealed to the state’s board of regents.

Though back in college, he wasn’t back on track. William was desperate for consistent relief from the depression that had plagued him for much of his life, despite taking “nearly every antidepressant on the market.”

Then, last spring, William’s father called Robert Pollack, MD, a friend since their days together at Yale University, to inquire about IV ketamine infusions, a relatively new therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

Dr. Pollack’s Fort Myers-based practice, Psychiatric Associates of Southwest Florida, embraces newly emerging therapies based on pioneering discoveries about the brain. Those include genomic testing to determine which antidepressant might be most effective according to the patient’s genetic profile, as well as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and theta-burst stimulation (TBS). Both use magnetic pulses to rouse areas of the brain and relieve depression.

Since 2015, Dr. Pollack has also used ketamine, an anesthesia drug introduced in the 1960s that can alleviate suicidal thoughts and act more quickly than many antidepressants. He estimates that 72 to 75 percent of his patients treated with ketamine have had a positive response.

William traveled to Fort Myers for a series of six infusions over two weeks. Following each 30- to 45-minute procedure, it took him a short while to get his bearings.

“I was very woozy, then I went to the hotel where we were staying, got food and I was fine the rest of the day,” he asserts. “Within two weeks of the initial treatment, there was a definite change. I was far less harsh on myself. I was far less miserable.”

When his depression was at its most devastating, William wouldn’t leave home or interact with anyone.

“By the third treatment, he shook my hand and said, Good morning,”

Dr. Pollack reports. “I’ve known him a long time, and that’s a first. People with Asperger’s don’t usually gain a lot of social skills. But William now sits here and laughs. He tells jokes.”

Preventing a “Ruined Life”

William calls Dr. Pollack “a godsend” whose scientific approach is “radically different” from the many other mental health professionals William has seen over the years. He recommends keeping “an open mind about some of the more experimental treatments, because everything has to start experimentally.”

William’s new regimen has him taking fewer medications, which has allowed him to lose weight. He returns once a month for booster infusions. While still “a bit anti-social,” William says he’s getting better and eventually may overcome it.

A student of philosophy, he’s also well on his way to completing his four-year degree at West Georgia in Carrollton, where he has his own apartment and is looking ahead to a career. Teaching is a possibility; so is the legal profession.

“There are so many paths, and I’m not really sure which one I’m supposed to go on yet,” William states. “But I’m also not too bothered by that because at least I’m aware that there is a way forward.”

He’s eager to share his story because he wants people to know how much he and others like him have suffered, he says.

“The way kids with autism tend to be treated, at least in the area I grew up in, is damning,” William declares. “It results in lost lives. Even if they may not end up as suicidal as I was, it really warps a person. It makes it very hard to move on, to be productive, to be happy. And it seems as though people just don’t care, and that really saddens me."

“Misunderstanding may be the cause, but at the same time, I have trouble differentiating between misunderstanding and willful ignorance, because the end result is still a ruined life.”

Brighter days are ahead for those living in darkness, William affirms, and life is worth living.

“There is hope for the future,” he concludes, “that I certainly did not feel a year ago.”

https://paswfl.com/2017/10/16/college-student-finds-relief-through-ketamine-infusions/​

 

[mr peabody]

CBD oil for kids with autism

by Troy Farah | VICE | 11 Dec 2018

Parents are fighting for the right to use CBD oil for their children's symptoms.

Lance has autism. When he was diagnosed just shy of his third birthday in 2008, he was nonverbal. He didn't potty train until he was six and he often smeared food on the wall. He was also extremely aggressive, often hitting, pulling hair, or hurting himself.

“My life was hell. I didn’t sleep…In 2012, I was pretty suicidal even,” Michelle tells me. “I did everything [for him] short of any hardcore pharmaceuticals—[Lance did not get] psychotropics or benzos or anything. I stayed away from SSRIs. I used to say, if we could just get rid of the aggression, if he would just stop hitting people…”

Then in 2014, the self-described conservative Christian mother from Dripping Springs, Texas, discovered cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound extracted from cannabis plants. It cannot get you high, unlike THC, the more famous cousin of CBD.

"The difference CBD oil made for Lance was almost immediate," Michelle says. “I'd say that first year of using CBD, his aggression went down probably 60 to 70 percent. In the subsequent years, we've been able to get it down even further.”

Encouraged by these results, that same year, Michelle helped co-found MAMMA, or Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism. The non-profit group’s goal is for parents across the country to be legally able to procure cannabis extracts for their kids, and to achieve this, they’re helping rewrite state legislation across the country. MAMMA is part of a growing wave of support for giving cannabis oil (typically high-CBD, low-THC formulations) to kids with autism. Parents say it helps their children regulate their emotions, sleep better, and manage other co-occurring conditions including epilepsy.

But giving CBD oil to kids has sometimes led to Child Protective Services stepping in and threatening parents, even in states like California where CBD is legal. These stories have further motivated groups to lobby for protective legislation.

In 2018 alone, at least six states have enacted legislation allowing the use of marijuana for autism specifically, while two states failed to pass legislation that would have added autism as a qualifying condition. Arizona and Colorado were unable to pass legislation while Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and, most recently, Utah, have enacted measures permitting it. Iowa's Board of Medicine voted on December 14 to add severe pediatric autism to its list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.

Other states, such as Texas and Colorado again, are setting their sights on similar legislation. MAMMA chapters have been involved in many of these campaigns or shared resources with groups that have lobbied for the passage of these laws, Michelle says.

“We're just autism moms sitting at a table. We don't go out seeking which states are next,” Michelle explains. “As states roll in and as other moms want to sit at their kitchen table and do what we're doing, we say yes. And we give them [access to] our Dropbox and we tell them what we’ve done and we hold their hand and [we’re] just all trying to do it together.”

States that have previously enacted pro-cannabis laws for people with autism include Georgia, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, plus Puerto Rico. Other places like Massachusetts, California, and Washington, DC, don’t explicitly allow it, but they have lax enough medical marijuana laws that doctors can still prescribe marijuana for the condition.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t endorse CBD or any form of cannabis for the treatment of autism. At the time of publication, Autism Speaks and Autism Society of America hadn't responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about using CBD for autism. A recent commentary in the journal Global Pediatric Health provided guidelines for doctors whose patients may be using CBD for autism, noting “CBD and similar products remain a promising yet unproven intervention in the treatment of children with ASD.”

And while a small but growing body of research has examined the evidence behind the anecdotes, there still haven’t been any clinical trials of cannabis extracts for autism tested against placebos.

A 2017 study from Chile gave 21 patients with autism oral cannabis extracts that included CBD and THC, and found they were “dramatically more effective than conventional medicines,” with approximately 67 percent of patients showing improvements in their symptoms. A 2018 study from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem gave 60 kids a 20:1 mixture of CBD and THC, and 61 percent of them saw improvements in behavioral disturbances. It’s worth noting, however, that neither study had control groups of people who received no treatment as a comparison, though the authors of the 2018 study have launched a placebo-controlled clinical trial based on their results. Researchers from UC San Diego are also seeking approval for a trial comparing CBD to placebos.

Still, a recent review, published by a team from Tel Aviv University, found “no convincing pre-clinical or clinical data” for the efficacy or safety of medical cannabis, including CBD, for autism. So what’s going on—can cannabis help or not?

First, let’s define autism. It’s a broad spectrum of developmental disorders characterized by deficits in communication and social interaction. Autistic people sometimes struggle with speech and nonverbal communication, may perform repetitive behaviors, and many are sensitive to certain sounds or visuals. Aggressive behavior, including self-harm, is also common.

The cause isn’t fully understood, but autism is more frequently identified today due to more thorough diagnostic criteria. As many as 1 in 59 children fall on the autism spectrum, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, a recently released study in the journal Pediatrics put the rate even higher—1 in 40 or 2.5 percent of the population.

Yet only two FDA-approved medications for managing autism symptoms exist on the market, and they leave much to be desired, Michelle says. Both drugs are only prescribed for irritability in autism, don’t address many of the other symptoms, and they have FDA black box warnings indicating death as a possible side effect. (However, another drug, balovaptan, was given “breakthrough” status by the FDA this year and may become available soon.)

The first, risperidone (Risperdal), is an antipsychotic with a long list of side effects including sudden death in patients with dementia and causing young boys to grow breasts due to hormone imbalances. The other drug, aripiprazole (Abilify), can cause sedation, uncontrolled movements and spasms, incontinence and poor impulse control, and, more rarely, seizures, and death in the elderly. The FDA warning for aripiprazole also cites an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, adolescents, and young adults taking antidepressants.

Yet, when Colorado governor John Hickenlooper justified rejecting a cannabis autism bill last summer, he cited the drug’s potential side effects, such as young people developing schizophrenia from cannabis use. “I vetoed it just because [the bill] went to all levels of the autism spectrum and my medical advisors said that they were concerned with people at the far end,” Hickenlooper said in an interview with Salon. He did, however, order the state to invest $1.35 million into randomized, controlled trials using CBD to treat irritability from autism.

But Michelle says the parents she knows are far more worried about aggressive autistic kids hurting someone, being institutionalized, ending up in jail, or worse. “Some of these kids die, okay?” she says. “We know a child that died from self-injurious behaviors. Other kids wander and end up in ponds, dead. These are the kinds of things our parents are worried about.”

Michelle adds, “When I sit down with a legislator and they want to start talking to me about how long-term effects on the brain are dangerous for pediatric [cannabis] use, you know, it’s almost laughable when you put it up against what the FDA has said is okay [referring to aripiprazole and risperidone]. On top of that we have Adderall, which is amphetamine, and that’s okay to give the kid.”

This year, the FDA approved the first plant-based cannabis drug for two rare, difficult-to-treat forms of epilepsy. Called Epidiolex, the drug is 98 percent CBD, but the remaining 2 percent is a company secret. There are some major differences between the pharmaceutical version of a drug that many people buy online or from smoke shops: Epidiolex has more stringent quality controls than some over-the-counter cannabis oil products, however, many patients swear by certain brand-specific formulations. (It’s worth noting that GW Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Epidiolex, is investigating the use of cannabinoids to treat autism spectrum disorders.)

Some parents insist that their kids need THC, not just CBD, in order to function, but a number of state laws, such as in Texas where Michelle lives, forbid THC concentrations above 0.3 percent. Furthermore, Epidiolex’s recent move into the CBD market has sparked fears that access to cannabis oil may soon become limited to one formulation that costs about $32,500 a year, although insurance may cover most of it.

“I don't trust the pharmaceutical industry because they have pushed so many drugs through so quickly that have caused harm. They’ve also done a lot of good, though,” Michelle says. “It’s hard not to be wary and wonder what is the end game here. I am worried Epidiolex could create problems [with availability of other oils].”

Because Epidiolex is now Schedule V under the Controlled Substances Act, that means doctors can technically prescribe the drug for off-label use, including for autism spectrum disorder. But just because they can, does it mean they should?

The Israeli researchers from Tel Aviv University conclude probably not, citing a lack of rigorous trials, but note that cannabinoids like CBD are “relatively safe.” One of the greatest remaining risks is product contamination, which can be avoided with strong regulation. One study author, Abraham Weizman, declined an interview.

Used alone or with other drugs, CBD may help with concurrent symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, including sleep disorders, ADHD, anxiety, and seizures, the researchers note. But for other conditions, such as psychosis, addictive behavior, mood or cognitive disorders and aggressiveness, the level of evidence is low.

But another team of Israeli researchers have found promising results. Israel is the medical marijuana research capitol of the world and a decent amount of research on cannabis and autism specifically is coming from the small Middle Eastern nation.

Israel’s first and largest medical marijuana supplier, Tikun Olam (Hebrew for “repair the world"), has helped more than 700 autistic children reduce anxiety and aggression, according to Ma'ayan Weisberg, the company’s head of international relations. Results from a prospective cohort study (meaning it was not randomized or controlled) involving 93 autism patients is expected to be published in the coming weeks and soon the company also plans to begin a double-blind controlled trial on the effects of high CBD oil.

But Weisberg cautions that cannabis is not effective for all children, and the oil does have some side effects, such as fatigue or diarrhea, so it’s not accurate to tout CBD as a “miracle” drug. “To say that something that you put into your body doesn't have side effects is not speaking the truth,” Weisberg says. “Going around saying, ‘Oh, this is like the perfect thing and it helps everything,’ can have a bad effect of the future of this industry.”

It’s not yet clear what metabolic pathway cannabis oil might be acting on to get these benefits or how it may interact with other drugs, so more research is needed. There is some evidence in rodents that increasing the amount of anandamide, a cannabinoid that occurs naturally in humans, can improve autism symptoms. However, this hasn’t been demonstrated in people and if and how cannabis oil may help people with autism is still open to debate.

Medical marijuana may be more popular these days—polling pegs its support among American adults at around 85 percent—yet when it comes to kids with autism, it’s still quite controversial. But desperate families like Michelle’s may see few options for their children, and as popularity for CBD rises, the issue is likely to spark more debate.

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/pa5xkk/cbd-oil-for-autism-in-kids​

 

[mr peabody]

Scientists discover link between autism and cognitive impairment

by University of Toronto | Medical Xpress | 29 Jan 2020

Autism can bestow brilliance as well as cognitive difficulty, but how either scenario plays out in the brain is not clear. Now a study by University of Toronto researchers has found that a tiny gene fragment impacts the brain in a way that could explain swathes of autism cases that come with mental disability.

Researchers led by Benjamin Blencowe, a professor of molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, and Sabine Cordes, a senior investigator at Sinai Health System's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI), have identified a short gene segment that is crucial for brain development and information processing. Writing in the journal Molecular Cell, the researchers describe how an absence of this segment is sufficient to induce altered social behaviour—a hallmark of autism—in mice, as well as learning and memory deficits, which are seen in a subset of autism cases.

Best known for difficulties in social interaction and communication, autism is thought to arise from mishaps in brain wiring during development. It can strike in various ways—those who suffer from it can have superior mental ability or need full time care. Where on the autism spectrum a person falls depends in large part on their genetics, but most cases are idiopathic, or of unknown genetic origin.

"It's very important to understand the mechanisms that underlie autism, especially in idiopathic forms where it is not clear what the underlying causes are," says Thomas Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis, a research associate in Blencowe's lab and lead author of the study. "Not only have we identified a new mechanism that contributes to this disorder, but our work may also offer a more rational development of therapeutic strategies."

Blencowe's team had previously uncovered a link between autism and short gene segments, known as microexons, that are predominantly expressed in the brain. Through a process known as alternative splicing, microexons are either spliced in or left out from the final gene transcript before it is translated into a protein. Although small, microexons can have dramatic effects by impacting a protein's ability to bind its partners as required during brain development. However, how individual microexons contribute to autism is not clear.

The team focused on a specific microexon located in a gene known as eIF4G, which is critical for protein synthesis in the cell. They found that this microexon is overwhelmingly excluded from eIF4G gene transcripts in the brains of autistic individuals.

To test if the eIF4G microexon is important for brain function, Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis together with Cordes' team bred mice that lack it. These mice showed social behaviour deficits, such as avoiding social interaction with other mice, establishing a link between the eIFG4 microexon and autistic-like behaviours.

A surprise came when the researchers found that these mice also performed poorly in a learning and memory test, which measures the animals' ability to associate an environment with a stimulus.

"We could not have imagined that a single microexon would have such an important impact not only on social behaviour but also on learning and memory," says Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis.

Further analysis revealed that the microexon encodes a part of eIF4G that allows it to associate with the Fragile X mental retardation protein, or FMRP, which is missing from people affected with Fragile X syndrome, a type of intellectual disability. About a third of individuals with Fragile X have features of autism but the link between the two remained unclear—until now.

eIF4G and FMRP associate in a complex that acts as a brake to hold off protein synthesis until new experience comes along, as the break is removed by neural activity, the researchers also found.

"It's important to control brain responses to experience," says Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis. "This brake in protein synthesis is removed upon experience and we think it allows formation of new memories."

Without the microexon, however, this brake is weakened and what follows is increased protein production. The newly made proteins, identified in experiments performed with Anne-Claude Gingras, Senior Investigator at LTRI, form ion channels, receptors and other signaling molecules needed to build synapses and for them to function properly.

But, making too many of these proteins is not a good thing because this leads to the disruption of the type of brain waves involved in synaptic plasticity and memory formation, as revealed by electrode recordings of mouse brain slices, in experiments performed with the teams of Graham Collingridge, Senior Investigator at LTRI, and Melanie Woodin, a professor of cell and systems biology at U of T.

Moreover, an excess of similar kinds of proteins occurs in the absence of FMRP, suggesting a common molecular mechanism for Fragile X and idiopathic autism.

Researchers believe that their findings could help explain a substantial proportion of autism cases for which no other genetic clues are known. The findings also open the door to the development of new therapeutic approaches. “One possibility is to increase the splicing of the eIF4G microexon in affected individuals using small molecules as a way to improve their social and cognitive deficits,” Blencowe said.

Scientists discover link between autism and cognitive impairment

Autism can bestow brilliance as well as cognitive difficulty, but how either scenario plays out in the brain is not clear. Now a study by University of Toronto researchers has found that a tiny gene fragment impacts the brain in a way that could explain swathes of autism cases that come with...

medicalxpress.com

 

[mr peabody]

Movement to legalize CBD for kids with autism

by Troy Farah | VICE | 11 Dec 2018

Lance has autism. When he was diagnosed just shy of his third birthday in 2008, he was nonverbal. He didn't potty train until he was six and he often smeared food on the wall. He was also extremely aggressive, often hitting, pulling hair, or hurting himself.

“My life was hell. I didn’t sleep… In 2012, I was pretty suicidal even,” Michelle tells me. “I did everything [for him] short of any hardcore pharmaceuticals—[Lance did not get] psychotropics or benzos or anything. I stayed away from SSRIs. I used to say, if we could just get rid of the aggression, if he would just stop hitting people…”

Then in 2014, the self-described conservative Christian mother from Dripping Springs, Texas, discovered cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound extracted from cannabis plants. It cannot get you high, unlike THC, the more famous cousin of CBD.

The difference CBD oil made for Lance was almost immediate, Michelle says. “I'd say that first year of using CBD, his aggression went down probably 60 to 70 percent. In the subsequent years, we've been able to get it down even further.”

Encouraged by these results, that same year, Michelle helped co-found MAMMA, or Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism. The non-profit group’s goal is for parents across the country to be legally able to procure cannabis extracts for their kids, and to achieve this, they’re helping rewrite state legislation across the country. MAMMA is part of a growing wave of support for giving cannabis oil (typically high-CBD, low-THC formulations) to kids with autism. Parents say it helps their children regulate their emotions, sleep better, and manage other co-occurring conditions including epilepsy.

But giving CBD oil to kids has sometimes led to Child Protective Services stepping in and threatening parents, even in states like California where CBD is legal. These stories have further motivated groups to lobby for protective legislation.

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article...autism-in-kids​

 

[mr peabody]

Premature birth found to interrupt placental function, causing brain injuries, and autism

Neuroscience News | April 27, 2019

Disruptions in the supply of allopregnanolone, a hormone created by the placenta late in pregnancy, to the developing fetus can leave children more vulnerable to brain injuries associated with ASD. Losing the supply of ALLO alters cerebellar development, an area of the brain critical for motor coordination and social cognition, impacting the post-birth development of cerebellar white matter. An experimental model revealed deficient cerebellar white matter resulted in social impairments and an increase in repetitive behaviors, two hallmark features associated with autism.

Allopregnanolone (ALLO), a hormone made by the placenta late in pregnancy, is such a potent neurosteroid that disrupting its steady supply to the developing fetus can leave it vulnerable to brain injuries associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to Children’s research presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies 2019 Annual Meeting.

In order to more effectively treat vulnerable babies, the Children’s research team first had to tease out what goes wrong in the careful choreography that is pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 10 babies are born preterm, before 37 weeks of gestation. Premature birth is a major risk factor for ASD.

The placenta is an essential and understudied organ that is shared by the developing fetus and the pregnant mother, delivering oxygen, glucose and nutrients and ferrying out waste products. The placenta also delivers ALLO, a progesterone derivative, needed to ready the developing fetal brain for life outside the womb.

ALLO ramps up late in gestation. When babies are born prematurely, their supply of ALLO stops abruptly. That occurs at the same time the cerebellum – a brain region essential for motor coordination, posture, balance and social cognition- typically undergoes a dramatic growth spurt.

“Our experimental model demonstrates that losing placental ALLO alters cerebellar development, including white matter development,” says Anna Penn, M.D., Ph.D., a neonatologist in the divisions of Neonatology and Fetal Medicine, and a developmental neuroscientist at Children’s National. “Cerebellar white matter development occurs primarily after babies are born, so connecting a change in placental function during pregnancy with lingering impacts on later brain development is a particularly striking result.”

The research team created a novel experimental model in which the gene encoding the enzyme responsible for producing ALLO is deleted in the placenta. They compared these preclinical models with a control group and performed whole brain imaging and RNAseq gene expression analyses for both groups.

“We saw long-term cerebellar white matter alterations in male experimental models, and behavioral testing revealed social impairments and increased repetitive behaviors, two hallmark features of ASD,” says Claire-Marie Vacher, Ph.D., lead study author. “These male-specific outcomes parallel the increased risk of brain injury and ASD we see in human babies born prematurely.”

ALLO binds to specific GABA receptors, which control most inhibitory signaling in the nervous system.

“Our findings provide a new way to frame poor placental function: Subtle but significant changes in utero may set in motion neurodevelopmental disorders that children experience later in life,” adds Dr. Penn, the study’s senior author.

“Future directions for our research could include identifying new targets in the placenta or brain that could be amenable to hormone supplementation, opening the potential for earlier treatment for high-risk fetuses.”

Placental function linked to brain injuries associated with autism - Neuroscience News

Disruptions in the supply of allopregnanolone, a hormone created by the placenta late in pregnancy, to the developing fetus can leave children more vulnerable to brain injuries associated with ASD. Losing the supply of ALLO alters cerebellar development, an area of the brain critical for motor...

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

Gene repair improves memory and seizures in adult autism

Neuroscience News | April 26, 2019

A new study challenges the presumption that people born with severe autism will benefit from medical interventions only if treated during a narrow window in infancy or early childhood.

Writing in the journal eLife, an open-access scientific journal, the Rumbaugh lab at Scripps Research in Florida reports improvement in measures of seizure and memory in adult mouse models of a genetic cause of autism, called SYNGAP1 disorder.

Children born with only one working copy of the SYNGAP1 gene don’t make enough of the critical SynGAP protein. Two broken copies is lethal. Depending on the extent of their deficit, these children can develop a range of developmental challenges as they mature. This may include intellectual disability, autism-like behaviors, disordered sensory processing, and epileptic seizures that don’t respond to medication. The disorder likely affects one to four individuals per 10,000, similar to the frequency of Fragile X syndrome, says Gavin Rumbaugh, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Research in Florida. However, patients can only be discovered through genetic tests. As a result, only a small fraction of patients with this disorder have been discovered.

To study whether treatment of SYNGAP1 disorder in adulthood could be beneficial, Rumbaugh’s team genetically restored levels of the mice’s SynGAP protein to normal. The treated adult mice showed multiple improvements. It suggests that having one broken copy of the gene not only harms the brain as it develops, but it also has effects in the adult brain, Rumbaugh says. There may be reason to treat at any stage of life once options become available, Rumbaugh adds.

“Our findings in mice suggest that neurodevelopmental disorders’ disease course can be altered in adult patients,” Rumbaugh says. “We can correct brain dysfunction related to seizure as well as memory impairments after restoring SynGAP protein levels in the adult animals.”

Significantly, the paper offers a path to measure the effectiveness of potential medications or other therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders going forward. Electrographic spikes between seizures is an indicator of epilepsy. In their paper, the scientists looked at human EEG data collected from a SYNGAP1 disorder patient registry and found that the appearance of these spikes were much more likely to occur during sleep. Similar findings were observed from mouse models of SYNGAP1 disorder, offering a useful endpoint. "Establishment of biomarkers that predict generalized improvements in brain function will be a critical step in advancing treatments for people with severe neurodevelopmental disorders," Rumbaugh says.

The need for a treatment option is clear, Rumbaugh says. Seizures typically become more frequent as children with SYNGAP1 disorders mature, and for many patients, those seizures do not respond to anti-epilepsy drugs.

“Getting to know families affected by this severe disorder has been invaluable, and drives us to develop treatments that will improve the lives of both children and adults,” Rumbaugh says. “It is encouraging that gene therapy techniques that increase pathologically low protein levels for other types of brain disorders are showing promise in the clinic now.”

Gene repair improves memory and seizures in adult autism model - Neuroscience News

Researchers genetically restored levels of the SynGAP protein in adult mice who were deficient. Restoring the protein levels resulted in improved memory and a reduction in seizures related to the SYNGAP1 disorder, a form of autism. Findings suggest it is possible to extend the window of...

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

Autism diagnoses prove highly stable as early as 14 months

Neuroscience News | April 29, 2019

Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by trained professionals in children as young as 14 months are remarkably stable, suggesting that accurate screening and earlier treatment is feasible, report scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study published online April 29, 2019 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Growing evidence suggests ASD has its origins in prenatal life — most likely during the first or second trimester of pregnancy — and children begin to display symptoms of the condition by their first birthdays, such as failing to respond to their names or positively interact with others.

Early diagnosis of ASD means earlier intervention and improved therapeutic benefit. “The sooner you can address issues of ASD, the better the outcome for the child,” said the study’s first author, Karen Pierce, PhD, professor of neurosciences and co-director of the UC San Diego Autism Center of Excellence. She led the study with senior author Eric Courchesne, PhD, also a professor of neurosciences.

Multiple studies, including research conducted by Pierce, have found that simple parent checklists performed at the child’s first birthday can identify symptoms of ASD. And yet the mean age of ASD diagnoses in the United States, write the researchers, is “often years later, generally between ages three and four.”

Pierce said the lag between the first signs of ASD and diagnosis represents a missed opportunity, particularly given the accelerated pace of brain development in the first years of life.

“Synaptic density or connections between neurons in the prefrontal and temporal cortex, brain regions centrally involved in higher-order social behavior, doubles between birth and one to two years in age,” said Pierce. “It’s conceivable that outcomes for children with autism could be improved if treatment occurred during this period of rapid brain growth, rather than after, which is more commonly the case.”

To conduct their study, Pierce and colleagues assessed 1,269 toddlers from the general population (441 ASD, 828 non-ASD) who received their first diagnostic evaluation between 12 and 36 months and at least one subsequent evaluation, all by licensed psychologists. Diagnoses ranged from ASD and features of ASD to language and developmental delay or other developmental issues.

The overall diagnostic stability for ASD was 0.84, higher than for any other diagnostic group. Only 2 percent of toddlers initially considered to have ASD transitioned to later diagnoses of typical development. Within the group diagnosed with ASD, the most common transition was from ASD to ASD features at 9 percent.

Diagnostic stability of ASD was weakest at 12 to 13 months, just 0.50, but increased to 0.79 by 14 months and 0.83 by 16 months. Twenty-four percent of toddlers were not designated as ASD at their first evaluations, but later identified. The most common transition in this group was an initial designation of developmental delay (25 percent) or language delay (16 percent), transitioning to later-onset ASD.

“Our findings suggest that an ASD diagnosis becomes stable starting at 14 months, and overall is more stable than other diagnoses, such as language or developmental delay,” said Pierce.

“Once a toddler is identified as ASD, there is an extremely low chance that he or she will test within typical levels at age three or four, so it is imperative that we use every effective tool as early as we can to begin treating diagnosed children.”

Autism diagnoses prove highly stable as early as 14 months - Neuroscience News

Autism diagnosis becomes stable starting at 14 months of age, researchers report. The accurate diagnosis of ASD, four months earlier than previously believed, leads to more opportunities for early interventions.

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

Autistic adults thought they were ‘bad people’

Neuroscience News | Nov 7 2019

Summary: Many people on the autism spectrum who were not diagnosed until later in life grew up believing they were “bad people.”

Many over-50s who were diagnosed with autism late in life had grown up believing they were bad people, according to a new study published in the journal Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine.

Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University interviewed nine adults about their experiences of being diagnosed with autism in their 50s. The participants were aged between 52 and 54.

As children, some participants recounted having no friends and being isolated from others, and as adults they could not understand why people treated them differently. Several had been treated for anxiety and depression.

Participants also highlighted the lack of support available to adults with a new diagnosis.

It is thought to be the first study of its kind that examines the phenomenon of receiving a diagnosis exclusively in middle age.

Dr Steven Stagg, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and lead author of the study, said: “One aspect of the research I found heart-wrenching was that the participants had grown up believing they were bad people. They referred to themselves as ‘alien’ and ‘non human.’

“The research also suggests that receiving a diagnosis in middle age can be positive. The participants often described it as a eureka moment that brought relief into their lives. It allowed them to understand why others had reacted negatively towards them."

“Clinicians and health workers need to be aware of the possible signs of autism. Often people are diagnosed with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions and the autism is missed. More work also needs to be done to support older people after they receive a diagnosis.”

Autistic adults thought they were 'bad people' - Neuroscience News

Many people on the autism spectrum who were not diagnosed until later in life grew up believing they were "bad people."

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

New brain-based test enables rapid, more accurate autism diagnosis

Science News | May 20, 2019

Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have taken the first step in developing an objective, brain-based test to diagnose autism.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the team was able to measure the response of autistic children to different environmental cues by imaging a specific part of the brain involved in assigning value to social interactions.

Findings from the study are published in the current online edition of the journal Biological Psychology.

"Right now, a two- to four-hour session by a qualified clinician is required to diagnose autism, and ultimately it is a subjective assessment based on their experience," said the study's principal investigator, Kenneth Kishida, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

"Our test would be a rapid, objective measurement of the brain to determine if the child responds normally to social stimulus versus non-social stimulus, in essence a biomarker for autism."

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that affects communication and interaction with other people. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 1 in 60 children in the United States are autistic.

In the study, the team led by Kishida and P. Read Montague, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech, tested the responsiveness of the brain's ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to visual cues that represented highly-valued social interaction in children diagnosed with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) children. The study included 40 participants ranging in age from 6 to18; 12 had ASD and 28 were TD.

First, the study participants were scanned in an fMRI while viewing eight images of either people or objects, each one multiple times. Included in each set of images were two self-selected pictures of a favorite person and object from each participant. The other six were standardized images of three faces and three objects, each representing pleasant, neutral or unpleasant aspects from a data base widely used in psychological experiments.

After completing the 12- to 15-minute MRI scan, the children viewed the same set of images on a computer screen and ranked them in order from pleasant to unpleasant with a self-assessing sliding scale. In addition, pairs of images were viewed and ranked as to which one they liked better.

"According to the study, the average response of the vmPFC was significantly lower in the ASD group than in the TD group. Using images as a single stimulus to capture 30 seconds of fMRI data was sufficient to differentiate the ASD and TD groups," Kishida said.

"How the brain responded to these pictures is consistent with our hypothesis that the brains of children with autism do not encode the value of social exchange in the same way as typically developing children," he said.

"Based on our study, we envision a test for autism in which a child could simply get into a scanner, be shown a set of pictures and within 30 seconds have an objective measurement that indicates if their brain responds normally to social stimulus and non-social stimuli."

He added that this approach could also help scientists better understand the brain mechanisms involved in autism disorder as a whole as well as the many variations on the disorder's spectrum.

Kishida's team plans to do follow-up studies to identify which additional areas of the brain are involved in the different facets of the disorder to help personalize treatments for patients.

Scientists succeed in testing potential brain-based method to diagnose autism

Scientists have taken the first step in developing an objective, brain-based test to diagnose autism.

www.sciencedaily.com

 

[mr peabody]

Gut bacteria transplanted from autistic children cause autistic behavior in mice

Neuroscience News | May 30, 2019

Researchers transplanted fecal bacteria from autistic children, and neurotypical children. Mice who received the transplants from the autistic children began to exhibit autism-like behaviors, whereas the mice who received transplants from typically developing children did not.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects an estimated one in 59 people in the United States, causing a variety of difficulties with social communication and repetitive behavior. Many factors, including genetic and environmental effects, are believed to influence symptoms, and there are no approved treatments. Now, using mouse models, Caltech researchers have discovered that gut bacteria directly contribute to autism-like behaviors in mice.

The work was done primarily in the laboratory of Sarkis Mazmanian, Luis B. and Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology and Heritage Medical Research Institute (HMRI) Investigator. A paper describing the research appears online in the journal Cell on May 30.

“In recent years, numerous studies have revealed differences in the bacterial composition of the gut microbiome between individuals with ASD and neurotypical subjects,” says Mazmanian. “However, while this previous research identifies potentially important associations, it is unable to resolve whether observed microbiome changes are a consequence of having ASD or if they contribute to symptoms.”

“Our study shows that the gut microbiota is sufficient to promote autism-like behaviors in mice. However, these findings do not indicate that the gut microbes cause autism,” emphasizes Gil Sharon, senior postdoctoral scholar in the Mazmanian lab and the study’s first author. “Additional studies are needed to address the impact of gut bacteria in humans.”

The communities of microorganisms that inhabit the human gut are called the microbiota, and their collective genomes are known as the microbiome. These organisms live in a symbiotic state with humans. In exchange for a warm and nutrient-rich environment, bacteria help us digest food, affect metabolism, and educate our immune system.

To examine the microbiota’s role in autism-like behavior in mice, the team used “germ-free” mice–laboratory animals that are grown in the absence of microorganisms. Gut microorganisms from children with autism were transferred into these mice via fecal transplantation, and samples from people without autism were transplanted into other groups of animals.

The mice with microbiota from individuals with ASD exhibited autism-like behaviors, whereas the mice harboring microbiota from typically-developing individuals did not show these symptoms. Specifically, they spent less time socially interacting with other mice, vocalized less, and exhibited repetitive behaviors. These symptoms are analogous to behavioral characteristics of people with ASD.

In addition to the behavioral differences, mice colonized with human ASD microbiota also showed altered gene expression in their brains and differences in the types of metabolites present (metabolites are the molecules produced as byproducts of digestion and microbial metabolism). Two metabolites in particular were found in lower amounts in these mice: 5-aminovaleric acid (5AV) and taurine. ASD is sometimes characterized by an imbalance in the ratio of excitation and inhibition in the brain, so the researchers were intrigued by the lower amounts of 5AV and taurine, as both affect certain inhibitory neural receptors called GABA receptors.

“We were surprised to see how profound the effects were,” says Sharon.

The team then turned to mice that offer a different model of autism. This strain of mice, called BTBR mice, naturally exhibits autism-like behaviors. The researchers wanted to see if treating these mice with 5AV or taurine would reduce these behavioral symptoms. Notably, treated mice did indeed show decreases in autism-like behaviors. Further, brain examinations showed that 5AV, in particular, decreased neural excitability.

“There are many factors that make autism more complicated in humans than in mice. In mice, we can model the symptoms of the disorder but not reproduce it,” says Mazmanian. “However, this research provides clues into the role that the gut microbiota plays in neural changes that are associated with ASD. It suggests that ASD symptoms may one day be remedied with bacterial metabolites or a probiotic drug. Further, it opens the possibility that ASD, and perhaps other classical neurologic conditions, may be treated by therapies that target the gut rather than the brain, a seemingly more tractable approach.”

Gut bacteria influence autism-like behaviors in mice - Neuroscience News

Using germ-free mouse models, researchers transplanted fecal bacteria from children on the autism spectrum and neurotypical children. Mice who received the transplants from the ASD cohort began to exhibit autism-like behaviors, whereas the mice who received transplants from typically developing...

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

‘I understand exactly who he is’ | Moms discover they share autism with their children

by Isabela Dias | The Washington Post | June 11, 2019

Maria Mercado always knew she was different. Growing up in a boisterous Puerto Rican family in the Bronx, Mercado rarely spoke unless challenged or angry. To the outside world, she came across as a smart but shy girl, who learned to read at age 4 and couldn’t keep eye contact. For most of her school years, she had little trouble with academics — despite a severe stutter and constant daydreaming — but struggled in social settings.

Even into adulthood, Mercado sometimes had a hard time verbalizing her thoughts. “Can I say this?” she asked herself. Yet only she appeared to be aware of the problem. She just didn’t understand why.

The answer came in 2009 when Mercado was 28. Her son, Jackson, who was then 13 months old, began to regress in his development.

Abruptly, Jackson no longer seemed attuned to his surroundings. He stopped saying “mama” and “dada” and responding to his name when called. Five months later, following a 40-minute home interview with a psychologist and a speech therapist, Jackson was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders, now known as autism spectrum disorder.

At first, Mercado felt overwhelmed. But when she laid out flashcards and watched Jackson successfully match the words with the corresponding pictures, she knew “he was in there,” as she puts it, just the same as she had always been.

It isn’t uncommon for women with autism to receive a late diagnosis, or none at all. In the United States, autism is about four times more prevalent in boys than in girls — so much that, for decades, doctors didn’t even look for it in the latter.

Researchers now believe, however, that many girls have gone overlooked. Sometimes, they went on to be mothers of children with autism and, only then, did they find both the tools to navigate their own lives better and to care for their children in ways that perhaps no one else could.

After almost three decades without an explanation for her challenges growing up, Mercado didn’t need an official diagnosis to know that she was also on the spectrum. “It made me feel so much better that I can help him because I understand exactly who he is,” she said. “It’s not that I know him too well, it is that I know myself.”

When Jackson was young and couldn’t sleep, she turned him horizontally on the bed in the same way she had done herself on many restless nights. In a heartbreaking effort to get him to speak, Mercado would take away his toys and they sat together, crying, until Jackson made a sound.

“I knew that to get him to communicate I had to push him because that’s how I was able to break out of it,” she said. And because, like Jackson, Mercado is extremely sensitive to loud noises, she keeps headphones handy at all times for him to shut the world outside when it becomes too overwhelming.

The reason Mercado is so mindful of Jackson’s special needs is because hers were never addressed.

Gender differences in autism are little understood. But, in recent years, a growing body of research suggests that males and females exhibit their symptoms in different ways.

Girls tend to be better at masking their challenges with social interactions, for instance. And that they are obsessed with the color pink or collecting stuffed animals might not raise a flag about their development because these are expected from girls. Like Mercado, they are often labeled as introverted and their symptoms attributed to anxiety or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“The way our culture thinks of autism is a 4-year-old boy who can’t talk,” said Julia Bascom, the executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. “So whoever doesn’t fit that picture is swept under the rug.”

When Jennifer Malia took her 2-year-old daughter to the family practitioner and to a developmental pediatrician for consultation, they wrote off the child’s communication issues as a language disorder. Her daughter wasn’t on the autism spectrum because she was able to keep eye contact, Malia was told.

But Malia wasn’t convinced. She had witnessed the 45-minute emotional meltdowns during which her daughter would go from angry to nonverbal. She knew it because she had experienced such episodes herself.

So after hours of research, Malia, an author and associate professor of English at Norfolk State University, concluded that she was also on the autism spectrum and, at 39, received a diagnosis on the same day as her daughter. A year later, her son was also diagnosed, following an evaluation with a clinical psychologist and formal testing.

“It was really frustrating because my daughter didn’t have the stereotypical autism traits,” Malia said. “If I hadn’t pushed for that, we would have never been diagnosed.”

That early detection allowed her daughter to undergo 35 to 40 hours of speech, occupational and behavioral therapy per week and, eventually, overcome her language delay.

“She’s still on the spectrum, but she has manageable challenges,” Malia said.

Missing that critical intervention may have lasting effects on women, including depression and anxiety caused by a persistent feeling of failure. But a diagnosis, even later in life, means being part of a community and having access to a much-needed support network. For some, it even means finding a mission.

Dena Gassner, 60, used to blame herself for forgetting to buy tickets for her daughter’s Halloween party or for her inability to manage daily chores, such as being on time for church every week or doing laundry. (“The way I describe it is: I can do what you’re doing but I’m wearing an 80 pound backpack,” Gassner said.)

Everything changed when her 4-year-old son, Patrick, was diagnosed — and that prompted her own discovery at 38. Gassner immersed herself in the autism community and started attending conferences and reading biographies by other women on the spectrum, such as Valerie Paradiz’s “Elijah’s Cup” and Liane Holliday Willey’s “Pretending to Be Normal.”

Following three decades of self-doubt and 15 different medications for clinical depression and bipolar disorder, she found her own way both as a parent and a professional — Gassner is a PhD candidate in social work at Adelphi University and a board member of The Arc, an organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“Getting my own diagnosis has helped me liberate from the social pressures and enabled me to help my son become his own personal best,” Gassner said. “The journey was necessary, and now I can look back and say ‘thank God,’ because his autism has resulted in me finding out my identity.”

Maria Mercado said she was terrified when she became a public advocate appointee to the Citywide Council on Special Education in February 2018. At school meetings, Jackson’s father, from whom she has separated, always introduced the family because she couldn’t bring herself to speak in public. So Mercado didn’t know how to address dozens of parents who had been advocating for years, some of whom were even in charge of their own nonprofit groups.

But confronting her fear, Mercado faced a crowd to say: “This is who I am. I didn’t just parent, I lived this life. I live in my head just like our children.”

When it was over, she went to the bathroom and cried.

“If I expect Jackson to push himself, then I have to do the same thing,” she said recently. “I can’t expect him to be the best if I’m not pushing myself to be the best.”

Because of Jackson, Mercado has learned a lot about herself and what she can do.

Today, besides being a full-time mother and an advocate, she’s also a filmmaker. Her first short documentary is called “Apple of My Tree,” about her relationship with Jackson and being on the spectrum together.

Even without an official diagnosis, Mercado finds comfort in the special connection she has with her son. In her living room, surrounded by portraits of Jackson and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “I Love Lucy” books and vintage dolls, Mercado dwells on the same uncertainties as any other parent. She wishes she could guarantee Jackson’s future after she is gone. She wishes she could ensure his happiness and safety.

But it all goes away when she lies in bed with him at night and he looks at her and says: “Don’t worry, mommy.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/i-understand-exactly-who-he-is-moms-discover-they-share-autism-with-their-children/2019/06/07/a8c6d06a-5fc4-11e9-9ff2-abc984dc9eec_story.html?utm_term=.227d565e329a ​

 

[mr peabody]

Ketamine may hold potential as a treatment for autism, Tourette's

Health Europa | 10 Dec 2019 | Lancaster University | Dec 16 2019

To this day there is no known cure for either autism or Tourette’s syndrome, however, new research has revealed how a common anaesthetic could open up pathways to new treatments.

Lancaster University researchers have discovered, for the first time, how a genetic alteration that increases the risk of developing autism and Tourette’s impacts on the brain.

Based on the revelations, published in Cerebral Cortex, the researchers suggest that ketamine may hold the potential as a useful treatment for both autism and Tourette’s.

The researchers have shown how genetic deletion of a chromosome – known as chromosome 2p16.3 – can cause developmental delay and learning difficulties. They have also shown that people who have this deletion are around 15 times more likely to develop autism, and 20 times more likely to develop Tourette’s Syndrome.

Currently, the mechanisms involved are not completely understood.

Autism affects an estimated 2.8 million people in the UK while Tourette’s Syndrome affects an estimated 300,000 people in the UK. Recent research has shown that these disorders are genetically linked.

Treatments available for both disorders are limited, and new ones are urgently required.

Deletion of 2p16.3

Neuroscientists have shown that 2p16.3 deletion (Neurexin1) impacts on the function of brain regions involved in both conditions – this genetic deletion disrupts a brain area known as the thalamus, compromising its ability to communicate with other brain areas.

Lead researcher Dr Neil Dawson of Lancaster University said: “We currently have a very poor understanding of how the 2p16.3 deletion dramatically increases the risk of developing these disorders."

“However, we do know that the 2p16.3 deletion involves deletion of the Neurexin1 gene, a gene that makes a protein responsible for allowing neurons to communicate effectively.”

Ketamine as potential therapy

In the study the researchers found that the ability of the thalamic brain regions to communicate with other brain areas was impaired by the genetic deletion.

They tested the ability of a low dose of the drug ketamine, a drug used clinically at higher doses as an anaesthetic, to normalise the alterations in brain function induced by the genetic deletion.

“Intriguingly our data suggest that ketamine can restore some aspects of the brain dysfunction that results from 2p16.3 deletion and suggests that ketamine, or other related drugs, may be useful in treating some of the symptoms seen in autism and Tourette’s," said Dr Dawson.

“The brain circuits affected suggest that these drugs may be particularly useful for the cognitive and motor problems experienced by people with these disorders."

“Ketamine was shown to normalise activity in the thalamic regions found to be hyperactive as a result of the genetic deletion, and re-established the ability of these regions to communicate with other brain areas.”

This suggests that ketamine may be a useful treatment for people with 2p16.3 deletion or with autism and Tourette’s Syndrome, although more research is needed.

Dr Dawson continued: “While this data gives us important new information on the brain circuits affected by 2p16.3 deletion, and of the potential usefulness of ketamine to help people with autism and Tourette’s, much more research needs to be conducted to prove its clinical potential."

“The findings of this study give us important clues regarding the types of drugs that may be useful in the treatment of these disorders, and we are using this information to actively pursue the validation of these drugs for the potential treatment of these disorders.”

Ketamine may hold potential as treatment for autism and Tourette's

Researchers have shown how a genetic alteration increases risk of developing Autism and Tourette's, suggesting ketamine may hold the potential as treatment.

www.healtheuropa.eu

 

[mr peabody]

LSD as a therapeutic agent for autism

by José Ramón Alonso | 7 Jun 2017

Treatment of children with autism in the 1960s included shock therapies and many different psychotropic drugs. The results were bad: there was no positive change in those children although the treatments were occasionally maintained for years. Under these circumstances, more powerful drugs were sought and a new substance was considered: LSD had been synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938 and five years later, in 1943, in an example of serendipity, he discovered its psychedelic properties. It was an enormously powerful substance and produced an unleashed imagination consisting of “fantastic images, extraordinary shapes and an intense set of colors, as if it were a kaleidoscope.”

Between 1959 and 1974 different groups used LSD in children with autism. A detailed study by Freedman and his group appeared in 1962. These researchers gave LSD to 12 children with autism, 10 children and 2 girls, ranging in age from 5 years and 11 months to 11 years and 10 months. They administered the drug orally, in varying doses (50, 100 or 200 μg) at the first hour, upon arrival at school. The study authors noted that the effects of LSD intoxication were patent from 15-30 minutes and lasted from 4 to 5 hours. Some children became flush and their pupils dilated, but neither pulse nor blood pressure showed much change. Other children seemed to be catatonic (strange postures, hands in fixed and strange positions, waxy flexibility of arms). No child ate lunch until the drug effects were over. Freedman’s description included references to greater physical contact, disappearance of mannerisms, and a development of what appeared to be new bodily sensations. Seeing what happened in adults, the authors hoped that LSD would promote some loquacity in nonverbal children but “the hoped for change from muteness to speech did not occur.”

Comparing their results with what was known about adults with schizophrenia – autism was then considered childhood schizophrenia -, and despite this rather positive description, the authors concluded “little hope for LSD’s success in the treatment of children.” However, other authors were much more positive and, overall, reviewers concluded that the effects of LSD treatment were very promising and could even be considered excellent for the majority of children with autism.

New research began to make things clearer and to break those expectations. Different studies on children with autism saw no improvement in them. In addition, the vast majority of these studies, with our current criteria, which are much more demanding, left much to be desired. There were no controls, variables to be analyzed were not well defined nor were there any objective ways of evaluating possible improvements. The children were observed, without much estimation of their conditions and circumstances, and their reactions recorded in a narrative way. Observers knew that these children had received the medication – it was not a blind study – and no one was evaluating the reliability of their descriptions. Therefore, the data were purely qualitative, the descriptions were subjective, there were possible biases by the expectations of the observers and the reliability, accuracy and validity of such descriptions are unknown. In addition, some of these narratives are difficult to interpret. Neutral or negative results were often exposed in a more favorable light than they possibly deserved. For example, an increase in aggressiveness was described by Bender and her group as “an improvement in that it represented a contact with the environment that was previously ignored.” At present these studies would most likely not be approved for their completion and their results would not pass a peer review and would not be accepted for publication, but that is because science is improving day by day and fifty years have passed.

In those papers ethical issues regarding LSD use in children received barely a mention. Even statements concerning the procurement of parental consent were glaringly brief, or even absent, leaving the question open as to whether the parents of the children involved in those studies were even informed as to the effects of LSD.

In 1969 there were enough studies to publish a first review but the clinical picture of LSD was already severely damaged. The use as recreational drug had generated a very negative publicity and an important social alarm. The patent expired in 1963 and Sandoz ceased manufacturing in 1965, but although samples could still be obtained from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), bureaucratic barriers were important and the scope of the substance was notorious. The main reason given by researchers working with LSD in children with autism was sad: “all known forms of treatment have been tried unsuccessfully.” The truth is that evidence-based treatments simply did not exist. Pharmacological methods, shock therapies, and psychoanalytic strategies did not make any headway and behavior modification techniques were in their first steps. Today the situation is fortunately different: we have effective procedures for many of the deficits and excesses present in autism including problems of dreams, anxiety, depression or attention deficit. Behavior modification techniques are useful in many children and the best training of therapists and teachers makes clear and definite progress.

A recent paper by Bogenschutz and Ross 4 reviews what is known about the therapeutic uses of LSD. In addition to those studies on children with autism, it has been used in the treatment of alcoholism and other addictions, to relieve existential distress concerning death, particularly in the face of terminal cancer, and, with more limited evidence, to treat mood and anxiety disorders.

Contrary to what was observed for autism, the research that was conducted in the three decades after its discovery strongly suggests that LSD has some clinically relevant effects, particularly in the case of treatment of alcoholism. The studies that have been completed to date are not sufficient to establish efficacy, but the outcomes have been very encouraging, and larger trials are now underway or being planned. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of clinically relevant effects remain poorly understood and we have to remember previous mistakes, do not forget the lessons of those shameful studies and do our work under the highest quality standards.

https://mappingignorance.org/2017/06/07/lsd-therapeutic-agent-autism/​

 

[mr peabody]

Psilocybin and Aspergers – Life changing*

Third Option | May 2017

Hey.

I usually don’t post to the internet, but this is just too important.

I set up this website as it may just help others in my position, and there really needs to be more research done on this subject.

I removed many aspects of autism and literally fixed my brain! I can now understand emotions & social interaction, eliminated depression, and now actually have a future.

The beginning

I’m a 20-something guy with Aspergers Syndrome. I can’t leave the house alone, I feel totally lost and freeze up in social situations, I often glitch and get stuck on my words when trying to talk, and I literally can’t function around unknown people or in busy places without help. My life kinda sucks.

However, I can fix and repair most computers, build complicated electronics projects, absorb an entire service manual in one reading, solve problems logically, and remember the layout of every building I’ve ever been in, but I can’t even answer the phone or go and buy my own food.

I’m intelligent enough to realize these issues which have basically ruined my life, and now I’ve had enough. There’s literally no reason why I cannot do these things except for my own mind getting in the way and worrying/over-thinking everything & causing so much stress.

Something had to change.

The backstory

2016 was a bad year for everyone, myself included. I had to move house (twice), had a difficult break-up from my first ever boyfriend, and ended a large project I’d run for almost a decade (all within a 2-month period). This was the lowest point of my life. I couldn’t possibly see how it could get better, and thought about just ending it then and there.

I did not.

Since 2016, I’ve been suffering from depression, lack of energy and sleep, and lack of motivation (on top of the autism), but I refuse to take any kinds of pharmaceuticals as they come with extensive lists of side-effects often worse than the very thing they’re supposed to help with.

All these issues are in the mind, and the mind is what has to fix them, not mask the symptoms with pills in the way that air fresheners mask bad odors, and especially not trying to hide from and ignore the issues for as long as I have done.

The third option

At this point, I was between a life stuck on anti-depressants, or death. I did not want either of these. I want a life where I look forward to waking up in the morning, not one where I waste my days on YouTube, alone, at a computer.

At the beginning of 2017 I discovered the existence of psychedelics (shows how little contact I have with the outside world..), and I quickly became obsessed with reading other people’s reports of using them, articles on psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) & depression, and what little there is, on people with autism using things like mushrooms or LSD to reduce or totally erase the issues they’ve been facing all their lives. I decided I had to find out what it could do for me. I had nothing left to lose.

I first started by contacting The Psychedelic Society and applying for one of their Experience Weekends, but sadly I didn’t hear anything back from them for weeks.

I also got in contact with www.psilohuasca.com about their 1:1 ceremonies, but was sadly declined due to my condition.

I knew I couldn’t wait any longer, and decided I just had to do it myself.

So last week I went to Amsterdam.

I can’t even go out alone, yet I went to a foreign country to stay in a strange new place and eat some plants.

Trip #1. Testing testing

One morning, I took a small ~8g dose of Psilocybe Atlantis truffles, made as a tea. What followed was one of the best experiences of my life.

I spent about 5 hours giggling (so much so that my face muscles started to ache in the end), and lecturing the camera about politics/life/YouTube/magnets/CRT monitors/or whatever else popped into my head at the time.

There were absolutely ZERO negative thoughts at all during the event. The constant over-thinking and feelings of being shit/broken/useless/inferior to other people were literally gone for about 4 hours (I even suggested going out to get some lunch, though never left the couch), and my assistant also noticed things that I did not, such as, for the first time in my life, I was able to look directly at another person, if only for a few seconds.

All too soon the effects wore off and I was back to how I was before, though now I had a plan.

This first test was only a small dose to see if psychedelics were something I could even stand. As it turns out, not only can I tolerate it (I actually really enjoyed it!), but it was one of the least stressful events of my life.

The future

I’m now planning more trips. First a 15g “medium” dose to compare, then I’m going all-out Heroic Dose to try and achieve the so-called “ego death”, which is, as far as I’ve been able to work out, where you literally lose connection with reality entirely and your brain kind of “reboots” so to speak.

The description of that alone appeals to me so much, it sounds like a more intense version of what the vacbed does, where most senses are removed. (EDIT: I was right!!)

I guess its like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. I have a theory that bad trips are caused by people trying to hold on to reality, which is why it can go so wrong for people who don’t like that idea of not being in control.

To me it just sounds like something I have to do. As to why? I guess I’ll find out.

…Three weeks later…

Trip #2. Medium dose

This time with 15g of Atlantis truffles.

It came up a lot faster this time, within 15 minutes or so, and again started with giggles and laughter, which continued for most of the event. (I’d not laughed as much in my life!)

It didn’t *seem* too much more intense than the previous trip, though I did notice (and was told) the following:

- I was able to speak my mind a hell of lot easier (But some things I still got stuck on).

- I was able to make actual eye contact for the first time in my life, and for more than just a few seconds! – Though the ability to do so ended with the trip.

- All feelings of shittyness and depression were GONE for another 5 hours, though they did return later, as I knew they would.

- Everything felt amplified – I noticed some nice changes to sound/light/touch.

Some hours after the trip had ended; I was sitting on the couch with friends and had a sort of emotional overload. I got stuck on my words a lot and felt really fucking bad. This has happened at other times in my life exactly the same, nothing to do with the psilocybin, though I imagine that’s what bought it all up.

I was able to work through it and talk about the issues and problems, and it was another 100% positive experience overall.

Now comes the real work.

In the next trip I will attempt to achieve the ego death. 45g Hollandia, in the dark, with no distractions. That should do it.

I fully expect this to not be in any way pleasant, but the only way to get past these issues is to face them and to fucking destroy them.

I just hope that my brain isn’t of the type that psilocybin just won’t help (EDIT: It wasn’t!). I have much more testing to do but so far its been the best thing I’ve ever done.

Time will tell.

…One week later…

Trip #3. Heroic dose

Time to get some real work done.

I made a tea of 45g of Hollandia truffles (supposedly stronger than Atlantis ones I had last time), and sat down on the couch ready to drink it.

Something physically blocked me. I could barely move the cup to my mouth, it was like something inside was preventing me from doing it, the same exact thing that blocks my words and makes me freeze up in social situations.

I managed to override it, and with huge effort drank the foul tea. I then sat back and waited.

Nothing much happened for a while. Open-eye visuals (EDIT: I’ve had almost no closed-eye visuals, at any dose), but nothing very “big”, considering the amount I took.

After some time though, I noticed that all logical thought, the constant thought process, and all stress and worry were entirely gone. In fact even looking up words from long-term memory was hard to do, and at some point I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and memory. None of this bothered me though; it was all kind of nice.

I still don’t think I experienced “ego loss” or anything like reality/sense of self ceasing to exist, but what happened was better than I could ever have imagined:

It started as I was listening to the Chicken Run soundtrack at about ~120 mins into the trip.

Then something strange began to happen.

I started to literally feel the music instead of just hearing it. Like, I could detect the emotion behind it all.

This has never happened before and was a totally new thing for me. Usually music either has a good tune or it doesn’t..

When the soundtrack ended, another song, Warning Call by CHVRCHES came on and I felt more emotion than I’ve ever felt before in my life.

I was almost overloaded. I tried to tell my assistant but was getting stuck on words and getting quite stressed. They noticed and came over and sat down on the couch beside me.

The moment they did this, my internal brain filter that’s always running literally shut itself down, and seconds later more than a decade’s worth of emotions, troubles, hidden feelings, and bullshit all came out at once.

The next few hours were very intense, impossible to describe, emotional, but in no way bad. It was a huge release of everything. The entire trip was more “feeling” than “thinking”. No giggly funny times here.

I felt a huge amount of a feeling I’ve never had before. It was a sort of warm, nice, comforting feeling, like how I imagine cats must feel when in someone’s lap.

The closest I can describe it to is like laying in bed next to a boyfriend while he strokes my hair sort of thing.

Over the next 2 hours, with its help, and only with its help, was I able to talk through everything that had been stuck in my head for so long, and many more things that were totally new to me.

I know I wouldn’t have been able to do all this without the mushrooms help, even if logic was turned off by any other means. I needed that feeling more than I can ever explain in words.

After everything had been said (The trip had been about ~4 hours), I felt it slowly begin to leave me, and tried to sit up on the couch – it was about 1AM.

I drank some milk, and then stood up. I was covered in sweat, tears, and blocked nose, but I felt SO MUCH more energy at that point than ever I’d felt for years.

So then we went out to get some chips! Sadly everywhere was closed and we ended up coming back home, eating a huge bowl of mash potato, and talking about the trip and my life in huge detail until about 5:30AM. Many things were worked out during this time. Talking before & after the trip is essential!

The next day I woke up very early (without an alarm) even though I only got about ~4 hours sleep, yet I still had tons of energy throughout the day!

Then we went to a pub for lunch. That alone would have been literally impossible prior to this.

The following things have changed in the 1 week since the trip:

- I can now do natural non-forced eye contact with anyone
- I now know more than ever before what I’m looking for in a relationship, my specific role in the relationship, and why previous ones had all failed.
- I don’t glitch or get stuck on my words nearly as much – And don’t care when it happens!
- Stress and worry are greatly reduced – I was even able to use the phone today without help!
- I called the waiter over and asked for a 2nd portion of chips!
- I could also talk to the barman and dynamically generate conversation about the food and payment, without freezing, or even feeling shit or that I might fuck it up!
- And didn’t mind waiting for others to finish their meal before we went home
- The constant headache I’ve had since 2016 has finally GONE!
- And I can sleep quite a bit better, I’m waking up at ~9:00AM even without an alarm
- Today I went into a shop alone to speak with the manager (an old friend) – Usually I need help with this sort of social event
- A few days later I walked into another store to post a parcel, buy a chocolate bar, and not give a shit!
- Oh and I talked to about 6 people at once at a friend’s company
- Tonight I looked at myself in the mirror and, for the first time ever, didn’t hate what I saw.

I just can’t get over how positively I’ve changed in only a few days; I only hope it stays this way! I’ll definitely be exploring my mind further in future trips, to find out what other abilities remain locked and unknown to me. I think the term is Psychonaut.

The mushrooms have helped me more in 8 hours than anything else in my whole life ever has.

They showed me that I could do social skills, and how to understand emotions for the first time.

The ability was there all along, I just needed to see it. By shutting out the logical mind and its constant chatter and endless worrying, the real emotional side of my brain was able to take control for the first time.

There NEEDS TO BE more research on the subject of psychedelics and autism. If they helped me so much, I know they can help others too.

*From the article here :

Part 1: Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) and Aspergers Syndrome – Life changing

Part 1 Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) and Aspergers Syndrome – Life changing Hey. I usually don’t post to the internet, but this is just too important. I set up this website as it may just help others in my position, and there …

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