 
 Molecular model of human insulin. (Credit: iStockphoto/Martin McCarthy)
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — Defects in insulin function — which occur in diabetes and obesity — could directly contribute to psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have discovered a molecular link between impaired insulin signaling in the brain and schizophrenia-like behaviors in mice. The findings, reported June 8 in PLoS Biology, offer a new perspective on the psychiatric and cognitive disorders that affect patients with diabetes and suggest new strategies for treating these conditions.
“We know that people with diabetes have an increased incidence of mood and other psychiatric disorders,” said endocrinologist Kevin Niswender, M.D., Ph.D. “And we think that those co-morbidities might explain why some patients have trouble taking care of their diabetes.”
“Something goes wrong in the brain because insulin isn’t signaling the way that it normally does,” said neurobiologist Aurelio Galli, Ph.D.
Galli’s group was among the first to show that insulin — the hormone that governs glucose metabolism in the body — also regulates the brain’s supply of dopamine — a neurotransmitter with roles in motor activity, attention and reward. Disrupted dopamine signaling has been implicated in brain disorders including depression, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100608182645.htm
Seven-year-old Jalyn Weston’s art is more than a passion, it’s his way of communicating. “I did this one in Nashville at the Frist,” he said, holding a painting. “It’s me as a doctor. The white suit, the stethoscope around my ears, the yellow hair, which I have, and the orange skin – which is necessary.”
For Weston, who has a high functioning form of the developmental disorder autism, his work has provided opportunities that many children his age haven’t had, such as traveling to Washington, D.C., to debut one of his pieces being displayed in a national traveling exhibit with the 2010 International VSA festival. Formerly Very Special Arts, VSA: The International Organization on Arts and Disability helps people with disabilities participate in, learn from and enjoy the arts.
Read in Full:Â http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jun/09/autistic-youngster-communicates-through-his-award-/
Seven-year-old Jalyn Weston’s art is more than a passion, it’s his way of communicating. “I did this one in Nashville at the Frist,” he said, holding a painting. “It’s me as a doctor. The white suit, the stethoscope around my ears, the yellow hair, which I have, and the orange skin – which is necessary.”
For Weston, who has a high functioning form of the developmental disorder autism, his work has provided opportunities that many children his age haven’t had, such as traveling to Washington, D.C., to debut one of his pieces being displayed in a national traveling exhibit with the 2010 International VSA festival. Formerly Very Special Arts, VSA: The International Organization on Arts and Disability helps people with disabilities participate in, learn from and enjoy the arts.
Read in Full:Â http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jun/09/autistic-youngster-communicates-through-his-award-/
 
By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 8:47 AM on 9th June 2010
Opera star Andrea Bocelli has praised his mother for rejecting the advice of doctors to abort him.
The blind singer, who was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma as a baby, has revealed his mother Edi was warned he would be born with some disability.
He interrupted a show to recount a ‘little story’ of how a pregnant woman was admitted to hospital with appendicitis.
After being treated, the doctors suggested the woman should consider an abortion, the Italian singer revealed to his audience.
They had told her it was the ‘best solution’.
‘But the young brave wife decided not to abort, and the child was born,’ he said. ‘That woman was my mother, and I was the child.’
He added: ‘Maybe I’m partisan, but I can say that it was the right choice.’
Bocelli, 51, does not explain why doctors recommended an abortion at a time when it was still illegal in Italy. The present law dates from 1978.
Â
By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 8:47 AM on 9th June 2010
Opera star Andrea Bocelli has praised his mother for rejecting the advice of doctors to abort him.
The blind singer, who was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma as a baby, has revealed his mother Edi was warned he would be born with some disability.
He interrupted a show to recount a ‘little story’ of how a pregnant woman was admitted to hospital with appendicitis.
After being treated, the doctors suggested the woman should consider an abortion, the Italian singer revealed to his audience.
They had told her it was the ‘best solution’.
‘But the young brave wife decided not to abort, and the child was born,’ he said. ‘That woman was my mother, and I was the child.’
He added: ‘Maybe I’m partisan, but I can say that it was the right choice.’
Bocelli, 51, does not explain why doctors recommended an abortion at a time when it was still illegal in Italy. The present law dates from 1978.
 
June 8, 2010
By Travis Crum
ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — Christy Ramsey talks of the abusive childhood that Ryan Bush had to endure. She tells how at school he was so aggressive he had to be kept 10 feet away from other children, refused to sit still in class, and was unable to speak.
Thirteen years later, Ramsey — Bush’s autism mentor — tells the story of how she got the honor of watching Bush graduate from St. Albans High School a few weeks ago. It’s a feat many people thought would never happen.
Bush, 19, of Cross Lanes, thanked everyone the night of his graduation party for their help in his journey, especially Ramsey, who has been his mentor for 13 years.
“I said, ‘Thank you for being my best mentor since kindergarten through senior year, and you deserve a big award,’ ” Bush said.
Ramsey has been more than a mentor to Bush; she was there for him when others weren’t.
She began working with Bush as a child when he was severely autistic and had problems with lashing out at others and communicating. She said she came to understand that his violent behaviors stemmed from a bad home life and began calling on the state Department of Health and Human Resources to intervene.
After years of trying, Ramsey had Bush removed from the custody of his mother with the help of Kanawha County Circuit Judge James Stucky.
Bush was placed in a foster home — but that wasn’t a good fit either, she said.
Once again Ramsey took to the telephone until she finally got Bush placed with a permanent adoptive family.
Jodie and Greg Carr adopted Bush at age 15 after meeting him and falling in love with his personality.
Read in Full:Â http://wvgazette.com/News/201006080749
Â
June 8, 2010
By Travis Crum
ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — Christy Ramsey talks of the abusive childhood that Ryan Bush had to endure. She tells how at school he was so aggressive he had to be kept 10 feet away from other children, refused to sit still in class, and was unable to speak.
Thirteen years later, Ramsey — Bush’s autism mentor — tells the story of how she got the honor of watching Bush graduate from St. Albans High School a few weeks ago. It’s a feat many people thought would never happen.
Bush, 19, of Cross Lanes, thanked everyone the night of his graduation party for their help in his journey, especially Ramsey, who has been his mentor for 13 years.
“I said, ‘Thank you for being my best mentor since kindergarten through senior year, and you deserve a big award,’ ” Bush said.
Ramsey has been more than a mentor to Bush; she was there for him when others weren’t.
She began working with Bush as a child when he was severely autistic and had problems with lashing out at others and communicating. She said she came to understand that his violent behaviors stemmed from a bad home life and began calling on the state Department of Health and Human Resources to intervene.
After years of trying, Ramsey had Bush removed from the custody of his mother with the help of Kanawha County Circuit Judge James Stucky.
Bush was placed in a foster home — but that wasn’t a good fit either, she said.
Once again Ramsey took to the telephone until she finally got Bush placed with a permanent adoptive family.
Jodie and Greg Carr adopted Bush at age 15 after meeting him and falling in love with his personality.
Read in Full:Â http://wvgazette.com/News/201006080749
 
By DIANA FISHLOCK, The Patriot-News
June 07, 2010, 12:00AM
At Lawnton Elementary School, fourth-grader Philip Givler receives individual and group speech and language therapy and spends half his time in an autism classroom.
He used to visit a sensory room daily and receive occupational therapy to help him master physical tasks, such as holding a pencil.
Philip, 10, of Lower Paxton Township, is one of a growing group of students with some form of autism.
Schools also have seen a huge growth in numbers. As of December, 18,879 Pennsylvania students with autism were eligible for special education. Much of the growth in numbers results from doctors becoming better at being able to diagnose autism.
“This significant increase has been a gradual curve upward since 1993,†said Mike Miklos, an educational consultant with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network. He calls the work of educating these students “never ending and very challenging.â€
The challenge
“If you’ve met one student with autism, you’ve met one student. Each individual can bring such unique patterns of performance,†Miklos said. “The challenge of educating a person with autism is just immense.â€
There’s no one-size-fits-all educational or behavioral plan for students with autism, whether it’s a more severe form that leaves the student nonverbal and mentally impaired or Asperger’s syndrome, in which the child is intelligent and verbal, midstate experts said.
How does a school deal with an Asperger’s child who might have an IQ off the charts but can’t cope with someone jostling him in line? The student lacks a sense of what’s socially inappropriate and sometimes shows oppositional or aggressive behavior.
What works for one autistic student doesn’t work for the next. Sometimes what works one day doesn’t work the next. But as the population of students with autism has increased, educators have found several methods to be helpful.
In addition, some autistic students need speech classes to learn the social aspects of conversation: taking turns, smiling, and noticing and interpreting other people’s body language.
Some are much more sensitive to sounds or lights than other people or can’t cope in crowded situations, so it’s difficult for them to be in a classroom or a lunchroom with a lot of students, said Janet McCauslin, director of special education for Central Dauphin School District, which has six elementary, three middle school and three high school classes for students with autism.
Something as minor as where the student’s desk is in the classroom or how the room is lighted could be critical, said Luann Schaffer-Yeager, the director of special education for the Susquehanna Township School District.
People with autism spend so much time and energy trying to cope with an onslaught of auditory, visual and tactile input that there’s not much energy left for socializing, said Nina Wall-Cote, the director of the Bureau of Autism Services in the state Department of Public Welfare.
Christine Roesch, who teaches in an autism classroom at Central Dauphin High School, said, “The hope is to get them to tolerate more things so not so much of the world is overwhelming.â€
Her students, aged 17 to 21, form the first group that was diagnosed early and received help from preschool on, she said. Because they were in the first wave, their educational experience was more trial and error than it is for children diagnosed today.
“This is a population that has such great talent and aptitude and gifts and abilities, and a recognition of that is so important,†Wall-Cote said. “While we focus on the deficits — and those are real — there has got to be a recognition of the incredible abilities people have.â€
Pennsylvania conducted an autism census, which was released last fall. Before then, people didn’t know how many Pennsylvanians had autism, where they lived or how old they were.
“Pennsylvania is really the first state to have concrete numbers,†Wall-Cote said. “In 2005, we counted 20,000 individuals with a diagnosis. … By this year, we’re already at 25,000.â€
Officials say that’s an undercount, but it’s a starting point.
“We urge you to keep in mind the implications that these numbers will have on a service system wholly unprepared to meet the rapidly increasing population of children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders,†the report’s cover letter stated.
Read in Full:Â http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/06/schools_develop_programs_to_he.html
Â
By DIANA FISHLOCK, The Patriot-News
June 07, 2010, 12:00AM
At Lawnton Elementary School, fourth-grader Philip Givler receives individual and group speech and language therapy and spends half his time in an autism classroom.
He used to visit a sensory room daily and receive occupational therapy to help him master physical tasks, such as holding a pencil.
Philip, 10, of Lower Paxton Township, is one of a growing group of students with some form of autism.
Schools also have seen a huge growth in numbers. As of December, 18,879 Pennsylvania students with autism were eligible for special education. Much of the growth in numbers results from doctors becoming better at being able to diagnose autism.
“This significant increase has been a gradual curve upward since 1993,†said Mike Miklos, an educational consultant with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network. He calls the work of educating these students “never ending and very challenging.â€
The challenge
“If you’ve met one student with autism, you’ve met one student. Each individual can bring such unique patterns of performance,†Miklos said. “The challenge of educating a person with autism is just immense.â€
There’s no one-size-fits-all educational or behavioral plan for students with autism, whether it’s a more severe form that leaves the student nonverbal and mentally impaired or Asperger’s syndrome, in which the child is intelligent and verbal, midstate experts said.
How does a school deal with an Asperger’s child who might have an IQ off the charts but can’t cope with someone jostling him in line? The student lacks a sense of what’s socially inappropriate and sometimes shows oppositional or aggressive behavior.
What works for one autistic student doesn’t work for the next. Sometimes what works one day doesn’t work the next. But as the population of students with autism has increased, educators have found several methods to be helpful.
In addition, some autistic students need speech classes to learn the social aspects of conversation: taking turns, smiling, and noticing and interpreting other people’s body language.
Some are much more sensitive to sounds or lights than other people or can’t cope in crowded situations, so it’s difficult for them to be in a classroom or a lunchroom with a lot of students, said Janet McCauslin, director of special education for Central Dauphin School District, which has six elementary, three middle school and three high school classes for students with autism.
Something as minor as where the student’s desk is in the classroom or how the room is lighted could be critical, said Luann Schaffer-Yeager, the director of special education for the Susquehanna Township School District.
People with autism spend so much time and energy trying to cope with an onslaught of auditory, visual and tactile input that there’s not much energy left for socializing, said Nina Wall-Cote, the director of the Bureau of Autism Services in the state Department of Public Welfare.
Christine Roesch, who teaches in an autism classroom at Central Dauphin High School, said, “The hope is to get them to tolerate more things so not so much of the world is overwhelming.â€
Her students, aged 17 to 21, form the first group that was diagnosed early and received help from preschool on, she said. Because they were in the first wave, their educational experience was more trial and error than it is for children diagnosed today.
“This is a population that has such great talent and aptitude and gifts and abilities, and a recognition of that is so important,†Wall-Cote said. “While we focus on the deficits — and those are real — there has got to be a recognition of the incredible abilities people have.â€
Pennsylvania conducted an autism census, which was released last fall. Before then, people didn’t know how many Pennsylvanians had autism, where they lived or how old they were.
“Pennsylvania is really the first state to have concrete numbers,†Wall-Cote said. “In 2005, we counted 20,000 individuals with a diagnosis. … By this year, we’re already at 25,000.â€
Officials say that’s an undercount, but it’s a starting point.
“We urge you to keep in mind the implications that these numbers will have on a service system wholly unprepared to meet the rapidly increasing population of children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders,†the report’s cover letter stated.
Read in Full:Â http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/06/schools_develop_programs_to_he.html
The DSM-5 Sleep Disorders workgroup has been especially busy. They are calling for a nearly complete overhaul of the sleep disorders category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (“DSMâ€).
According to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May, Charles Reynolds, MD, suggested that the reworking of this category will make sleep problems easier for professionals to diagnose and discriminate between different sleep disorders.
He stated that the current DSM-IV puts too much emphasis on presumed causes of symptoms, something that the rest of the DSM-IV does not do. Bringing the sleep disorder section more in line with the other sections in the DSM should make it less confusing.
Primary and commonly diagnosed sleep disorders are being organized in the DSM-5 into three major categories: insomnia, hypersomnia and arousal disorder. The new DSM will allow professionals to choose amongst sub-types in each category, as can be done with many other major disorders in the manual.
Here’s a summary of some of the proposed additions and changes in the sleep disorders category for the DSM-5, slated for publication in May 2013.
These sleep disorders criteria are summarized from the proposed changes found on the DSM 5 website.
Kleine Levin Syndrome
This syndrome is characterized by a person who experiences recurrent episodes of excessive sleep (more than 11 hours/day). These episodes occur at least once a year, and are between 2 days and 4 weeks in duration.
During one of these episodes, when awake, cognition is abnormal with feeling of unreality or confusion. Behavioral abnormalities such as megaphagia or hypersexuality may occur in some episodes.
The patient has normal alertness, cognitive functioning, and behavior between the episodes.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/06/07/dsm-5-sleep-disorders-overhaul/
Sleep-Disordered Breathing Is Common but Hard to Detect in Pediatric Patients
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2010) — According to new research presented on June 5, at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, an estimated 18 percent of pediatric patients in a University of North Carolina-based study were at risk for sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). Importantly, pediatric risk was not associated with any demographic or craniofacial characteristics, as it is in adults, making it difficult to detect.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100605112533.htm
Sleep Apnea in Children and Teens Linked to Lower Academic Grades
ScienceDaily (June 8, 2010) — The average academic grades of children and teens with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea are worse than the grades of students who have no sleep-disordered breathing, according to a research abstract presented June 8, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.
Results indicate that moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea was linked to both lower academic grades and behavioral concerns expressed by parents and teachers. The results remained significant after adjustment for sex, race, socioeconomic status and sleep duration on school nights. Students with moderate to severe sleep apnea averaged a half-letter grade lower than those without any evidence of sleep-disordered breathing. None of the students with moderate to severe OSA had an “A” average, and 30 percent of them had a “C” average or lower. In contrast, roughly 15 percent of participants without sleep-disordered breathing had an “A” average, and only about 15 percent had a “C” average or lower.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100608091854.htm