MIT study uncovers possible genetic link for ADHD, autism

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/03/mit_study_uncovers_possible_genetic_link_for_adhd_autism

MIT study uncovers possible genetic link for ADHD, autism
Lindsay Kalter Thursday, March 24, 2016

A blockbuster MIT study provides new evidence of a genetic link for both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism — a possible breakthrough researchers say could lead to the use of cutting-edge gene therapy treatments for behavioral and developmental syndromes in the future.

“One of the long-term goals is gene therapy where we can actually introduce genetic material that might be missing from the human,” said Michael F. Wells, a 
post-doctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University. “What’s exciting is that this is now a possibility, when it was pretty much science fiction 
10 or 15 years ago.”

Gene therapy is an experimental technique used to treat diseases including cancer, ALS and Alzheimer’s disease. But disorders such as ADHD and autism have not been part of that discussion.

Wells found that genetically modified mice missing the “Ptchd1” gene — suspected to be absent in some people with ADHD, autism and intellectual disabilities — were more hyperactive and easily distracted than the mice that had the Ptchd1 gene.

[SheilaT]

1. For some time now

there's been a lot of talk about the mating habits of individuals who are on the very upper end of the autism spectrum, whose children more overtly have autism.

My (now ex) husband was always a bit removed from others. I was never as strongly that way myself, but sort of there. Our oldest son has Asperger's. Why am I not surprised?

What's most interesting is that we have a younger son who is as far from Asperger's as a person can be. From an extremely early age (I'm talking no later than 6 months) he tuned into other people in a way that totally astonished me. What I didn't fully understand was that it was the older son who was different, the younger son who was "normal".

I do know that Asperger's is relatively mild. And my son with it is not as strongly affected as some others. Were you to meet him you'd simply see a somewhat tall young man, totally bald because he happens to have alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss, who is clearly quite smart and a lot shy.

I do know some people with children with much more profound autism, and they inhabit a totally different world than I do.

[djean111]

2. I could have told them about the ADHD.

I am only "in repose" when asleep, son the same way, he starts projects like moving a waterbed at one in the morning.

Grandson takes 60 mg of adderall a day to keep on somewhat of an even keel - his KINDERGARTEN teacher flunked him, because he would never be still - he went to a different teacher the next year, she called me and said hey, he is helping me teach the other kids in my kindergarten, we tested him, and he belongs in first grade, and also - please have him evaluated for ADHD, or he will spend his whole childhood not understanding why people are cross at him.

Oh, I posted this elsewhere - the internet is sort of like crack to many people with ADHD.