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Letters to the Editor
Published Online: 1 December 2006

Biology of Autism

Newton Bowdan, M.D.Authors Info & Affiliations
Publication: Psychiatric News
Volume 41, Number 23
https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.41.23.0027a
The article “Genes Offer More Hope in Understanding Autism” in the September 15 issue quotes researcher Gerard Schellenberg, Ph.D., as saying, “We really need to understand autism at a cellular and molecular level.” I agree completely with that statement, but no molecular biology was elucidated in the article.
Consider the study in the September American Journal of Psychiatry by Laumonnier, et al., titled “Association of a Functional Deficit of the BKCa Channel, A Synaptic Regulator of Neuronal Excitability, With Autism and Mental Retardation.”
Apparently, a gene that encodes a type of Ca++ activated by K+ channel“ is physically disrupted... .This activity can be enhanced in vitro by addition of a BKCa channel opener.” This type of information is more useful than mere generalizations and, moreover, may point the way for a type of treatment.
In addition, an entire issue of Clinical Neurosciences Research, which grew out of a meeting last December of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases, was devoted to autism, but was not referenced.
So, please, more facts, fewer platitudes.

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Go to Psychiatric News
Psychiatric News
Volume 41 • Number 23 • December 1, 2006
Pages: 27

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Published online: 1 December 2006
Published in print: December 1, 2006

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Newton Bowdan, M.D.
South Hadley, Mass.
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