A special issue of Biological Psychiatry published on February 15, 2007, is devoted to recent advances in autism research. The editors, Benedetto Vitello and Ann Wagner, provide a helpful overview of how autism research has evolved over the past ten years in their editorial, The Expanding Field of Autism Research and particularly note the role of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), which was established in 2001 to coordinate “research efforts and other aspects relevant to autism within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)” and which “serves as a forum to assist in increasing public understanding of the member agencies’ activities and to foster discussion around critical aspect of autism research.” The IACC’s Autism Research Matrix can be found under Department of Health and Human Services 2004. Vitello and Wagner write:
As reviewed in the fall of 2006, significant progress was noted in research capacity building and in the areas of characterization of autism spectrum disorders and associated genes, understanding of neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and development of instruments for screening and measuring treatment outcomes. Some significant gaps were also identified, including research that analyzes environmental factors possibly relevant to the etiology of autism and the development of animal models. The panel concluded that, for the foreseeable future, several parallel pathways of investigation will need to be pursued, with increased efforts to integrate various lines of research and ongoing brainstorming about critical research and emerging opportunities.
The full text of the 16 articles can be found here.
Cogent summaries of some of the articles—on autism and the hormone oxytocin; excessive growth in a child’s head size in the first 12 months of life; the effects on early brain development due to dysfunction involving glutamate (“a neurotransmitter with many important roles in the proper growth and functioning of brain cells”); the development of a modified version of the Child Global Assessment Scale (CGAS), namely the Disability-Child Global Assessment Scale (DD-CGAS)—can be found via the NIMH website. Other articles focus more specifically on treatment, such as the relation of dietary intake to the gastrointestinal system in autistic children (the conclusion is that “results suggest that GI symptoms are not significantly related to abnormal patterns of dietary intake of macronutrients—specifically, carbohydrates, proteins, or fats”) and on early pharmacological treatment (including SSRI’s and Risperidone) for autistic children.