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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Program reduces autism bad behaviors

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Tuesday December 1, 2009

Many benefits to continuing pediatric care
Air pollution hurts child breathing
Program reduces autism bad behaviors
Advice from Carolyn Hax
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Many benefits to continuing pediatric care

PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI) -- Children without regular pediatric care have less access to needed services, U.S. researchers found.

The study, scheduled to be published in Pediatrics, found children lacking a usual source of care were more likely to have unmet medical needs including delayed urgent care and problems obtaining dental care or specialty care.

"In the current policy debates about health insurance reform, much of the focus has been on the importance of stable health insurance," principal investigator Dr. Jennifer DeVoe of Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland said in a statement. "This study confirmed that having a stable usual source of care is also an important factor in accessing needed healthcare."

Previous studies, DeVoe said, found children with continuing care use more preventive healthcare, less emergency services and if hospitalized, have shorter hospital stays.

DeVoe and colleagues received completed surveys -- with questions vetted in national surveys -- for 2,681 "focal children" and applied statistical weights to ensure that these responses were representative of the 84,087 households in the food stamp population.

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Air pollution hurts child breathing

NEW YORK (UPI) -- Infant exposure to metals from residential heating oil combustion and diesel emissions are linked to respiratory symptoms, U.S. researchers found.

Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health compared pollutant levels with respiratory symptoms of children between birth and age 2 living in Northern Manhattan and in the South Bronx.

Senior investigator Dr. Rachel L. Miller of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and co-deputy director of at the Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues found the airborne metals nickel and vanadium, were risk factors for wheezing in young children.

Residual oil combustion for heating is a major source in New York City of these metals. Elemental carbon, in diesel exhaust, was associated with increased frequency of coughing only during cold and flu season -- September through April, the researchers said.

"It appears that exposure to ambient metals and diesel-exhaust particles in our air may lead to several respiratory symptoms for young children living in urban areas," Miller said in a statement.

The findings are scheduled to be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in December.

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Program reduces autism bad behaviors

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (UPI) -- Behavioral problems of autistic children can be reduced through medication and a parental training program, U.S. researchers say.

The 24-week study involved 124 children ages 4-13 with autism, Asperger's or related disorders at Yale University.

The research, conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network, found anti-psychotic medication risperidone, or Risperdal, reduced behavioral problems as tantrums, aggression and self-injury in children with autism.

However, most children's symptoms returned when the medication was discontinued after six months.

Researchers at Yale University, Ohio State University and Indiana University tested the benefits of medication alone compared with medication plus a parent training program that actively involves parents in managing their children's severely disruptive and non-compliant behaviors.

In a series of 14 sessions over six months, parents were taught to reduce their children's challenging behavior and to enhance daily living skills.

The study, to be published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found although both groups improved over the six-month trial, the group receiving combination therapy showed greater reduction in disruptive behavior, tantrums and aggression compared with the group receiving medication only.

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Advice from Carolyn Hax

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