Genetic Variations may Increase Risk of Autism

(AP) -- A rare genetic variation dramatically raises the risk of developing autism, a large study showed, opening new research targets for better understanding the disorder and for treating it.
Research into the causes of autism has focused on genetic causes because so many families have multiple children with the disorder. Thus far, only about 10 percent of autism cases have a known genetic cause. Boston, Massachusetts-area researchers estimate the gene glitch they've identified accounts for an additional 1 percent of cases.
They found that in people with autism, a segment of a chromosome that has genes linked to brain development and various developmental disorders was either missing or duplicated far more often. The defect was inherited in some cases, but more often the result of a random genetic accident.
The results from the Autism Consortium study, released online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, confirm those of smaller studies by U.S. and Canadian research groups in the past year. The consortium verified its findings by checking two other DNA databases.

To read more go to CNN.....

Our Deepest Fear.......MLK Day!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Interface Consultation Services - Update

A brief overview of Interface Consultation Services (ICS) current endeavors:

I. PESI Seminars by ICS:

High Risk Callers: Responding to Psychiatric Emergencies Over the Phone. New and exciting sorely needed seminar designed specifically for clinicians, call centers, triage nurses who provide efficient assessment and treatment over the phone. Psychiatric Emergencies over the phone line are DIFFICULT and extremely anxiety provoking. General Medical Clinics are seeing more psychiatric patients. Learn the skills you didn't learn in school to assist these patients.

II. Telemental Health Triage - We continue our day-to-day service commitment to Riverwood Center to provide professional triage services so their consumers are assured efficient and timely access to mental health services, appropriate level of care assignments and expert telephone crisis triage.

III. Utilization Management - We continue to provide acute care authorization for Riverwood Center, a community mental health center.

IV. MPRI - Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative for the Mentally Ill - ICS are contracted as the Regional Care Coordinators for the Western Michigan providing services to 17 counties.
ICS has four care coordinators and an administrative assistant to assist with this initiative. This program continues to grow at a fast pace and it the only program of it's kind in the US. This speciality program is designed for mentally ill prisoners who are returning to the community. As care coordinators and regional administrators, we assist enrollees with housing, psychiatric medications, specialized placements as well as care coordination and consultation on some difficult cases for the program.

V. College Level Course - ICS partner, Kathlene LaCour is an part-time facility member at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

We are seeking other opportunities to expand these kinds of services to agencies in our region.

Please contact us via email by clicking on the link to learn more about how we can service your consulting needs or call (269)929-1292.

Mother's Stress Appears to Boost Kid's Asthma Risk

Provided by: Canadian PressWritten by: Sheryl Ubelacker, Health Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESS Jan. 15, 2008

TORONTO - Children whose mothers suffer prolonged depression or anxiety appear to have a higher rate of asthma than other youngsters, independent of other risk factors for the increasingly common respiratory condition, a Canadian study suggests.

The study, which analyzed seven years of health records for almost 14,000 Manitoba children born in 1995, found that kids whose mothers were chronically distressed during those childhood years had a 25 per cent increased risk of developing asthma.

The finding, reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, was independent of other factors associated with childhood asthma, such as genetic predisposition, household income, being male or female, or living in an urban or rural environment.

Lead investigator Dr. Anita Kozyrskyj, an associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Manitoba, said she and her colleagues determined through the health records whether children had asthma by age seven and related it to maternal distress as defined by doctor visits, hospitalizations and prescriptions for depression and anxiety.

Maternal distress was categorized by onset and duration into four categories: no distress, postpartum distress, short-term distress and long-term distress.

"And it's those mothers in the long-term or persistent category who had the greatest number of health-care visits and prescription medications," Kozyrskyj said Tuesday from Winnipeg. "So that may be an indication of more severe depression and/or anxiety."

Even taking other major risk factors for childhood asthma into account, she said, "the persistent maternal distress measure still is significantly associated with the development of asthma at age seven."

But she stressed that mothers should not take the findings to mean that they are to blame for their children's asthma.

"I think the significance of the results is that there is an association," she said, noting that the study design cannot determine direct cause.

"We know that genetics, a maternal history of asthma, maternal smoking are also very important risk factors for the development of asthma. So this is another risk factor."

At this point, scientists don't know how maternal distress might contribute to a child becoming asthmatic.

But Kozyrskyj said depressed or anxious mothers are more likely to indulge in behaviours that are known to contribute to asthma in youngsters, such as using tobacco that creates second-hand smoke.

"Aside from that ... depressed mothers are less likely to interact with their infants," she said, noting that studies of laboratory rats show that pups with inattentive mothers have abnormal immune and stress responses. The same may be true for humans, she added.

Kozyrskyj said too many mothers, particularly in low-income families, are raising children in environments that contribute to chronic distress.

"Some moms live in environments with low social support and high family conflict or violence, so environment leads to the depression or the anxiety," she said. "So it hardly could be mother's fault when mother is responding to a very stressful environment."

Public health programs that help mothers deal with depression and anxiety - and families with conflict and other issues - may need to be beefed up and expanded, she said.

"So if you can prevent (maternal distress), therefore you decrease your likelihood of asthma and other childhood conditions, too."