Archives
2023
April is Autism Awareness Month. At the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), it’s a time to reflect on our progress and reaffirm our commitment to supporting research that responds to the needs of people on the autism spectrum, now and into the future. Read More
2022
People with autism experience a spectrum of strengths and challenges across the full lifespan. These facts are compellingly clear to me from serving as chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) since my arrival at NIMH in 2016. The IACC is charged with advising the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on policies, practices, and research priorities with regard to autism. Read More
2021
April is Autism Awareness Month, and this April’s observance comes after a particularly challenging year with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As I noted in my last Director’s Message, the effects of the pandemic are especially challenging for the most vulnerable, including those on the autism spectrum and their families. Read More
2020
One of the privileges I have had as director of the National Institute of Mental Health is chairing the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). The IACC, charged with coordinating activities across multiple federal agencies with regards to research, services, and policy around autism spectrum disorder (ASD), comprises federal and private partners. Particularly valuable are the contributions from members of the committee who have lived experience with ASD. Read More
April is Autism Awareness Month, although this April is quite different than the last. Many people’s lives — including those of individuals with autism and their families — have been dramatically altered by the coronavirus pandemic. Before coronavirus, I had written a Director’s Message focused on recent advances in autism genetics research. That will be coming later in the month. But first, I felt the need to address the challenges faced by individuals with autism and their families during this difficult time. Read More
2019
The cherry blossoms are blooming, the daffodils are bright, and it’s getting just warm enough to enjoy an early evening walk without a jacket. It’s April in Bethesda, time to dust off the outdoor furniture, put away the winter clothes, and... focus on autism. That’s right: April is Autism Awareness Month, time to take stock in where we’ve been, figure out what we’ve accomplished, and think about next steps. Read More
2018
April is Autism Awareness month. Here at NIMH, autism is a year-round priority. We’ve been busy on multiple fronts, from keeping track of existing programs, to planning the next set of initiatives, to working with our federal and public partners to ensure coordination of efforts. We are working hard because we know individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families are counting on us. I thought I would take some time during Autism Awareness Month to highlight some of the things we’ve been doing over the past year.Read More
2017
In recognition of Autism Awareness Month, I am highlighting NIMH’s efforts at improving understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developing effective interventions and supports for individuals with ASD. As I wrote in my last message, ASD describes a heterogeneous group of conditions that share several core features, including difficulties with social communication and repetitive behaviors. Read More
Understanding how the brain develops and functions remains among the most difficult of scientific challenges, as is the effort to understand the causes of conditions that alter its function. Among these is autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is described as a spectrum because of the considerable variation in how individuals manifest both symptoms and severity. Read More
2015
April is National Autism Awareness Month – a time when we come together as a community to recognize the contributions and needs of individuals on the autism spectrum, and renew our commitment to provide supports and opportunities that will help them succeed. This is a good time to take stock of what has been accomplished in the past year for both science and services related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been a busy and exciting year. Read More
2014
On August 8, President Obama signed into law the Autism CARES Act (for Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support). The law ensures the continued work of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), but it also brings new opportunities to focus attention on an area of concern for many parents—what happens when their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) mature into adulthood?
Autism Awareness Month arrives this year with a package of new, important research findings. Below I describe a few of these. The field is moving so rapidly that, by the end of April, there will likely be yet a new crop of findings—so this is, at best, a progress report for the beginning of Autism Awareness Month.
2013
In 2007, Caryn James wrote in The New York Times that "autism has become to disorders what Africa is to social issues." This statement was intended to emphasize the emerging public recognition of autism during the preceding decade. But it was also a prescient comparison, for in the years since 2007, autism and Africa have become highly contentious topics with emerging movements that have polarized those involved and confused the broader public.
2012
Every year the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) updates its Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder Research, identifying progress and new opportunities across the range of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research. Each year this task gets more difficult. In 2012, the speed of progress was so rapid that each draft of the Plan was out of date by the time the IACC reviewed it. The sheer volume of research was overwhelming. According to PubMed, there were over 1,000 ASD papers related to genetics or brain imaging since January 2011 – more than three times the number of papers from the same interval a decade ago.
Last week’s autism news was about prevalence. The CDC reported a 78 percent increase in autism prevalence since 2002. This week’s autism news is about genetics—three papers in Nature describe new genes associated with autism. For many people, these two stories seem contradictory or, at best, unrelated. Increasing prevalence suggests environmental factors like chemicals and microbes changing over the past decade, whereas genes change over generations. Why is anyone looking for genetic causes when there is such a rapid increase in prevalence? Shouldn’t every research dollar be invested in finding the environmental culprit rather than searching for rare gene variants?
Autism is always surprising. Earlier today, the CDC released new numbers from their ongoing surveillance of autism prevalence, the Autism and Developmental Disability Monitoring (ADDM) Network. What was once considered a rare disorder is now reported as affecting 1 in 88 children, 1 in 54 boys. These new numbers, up 78 percent from 2002 and 23 percent from 2006, raise immediate questions. Are more children affected or more detected? Does the increase reflect a growing problem, or do these new numbers reflect an improvement in our ability to diagnose and serve those affected?
2011
Looking back over NIMH related events these past few months, one might wonder if this has been Autism Spring. It has certainly been a busy season for autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a White House meeting, unprecedented press coverage, and the largest International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) to date. But perhaps most exciting has been the early scientific harvest evident in a series of high-profile papers published over the past two months. Some of these discoveries with autism have implications for mental disorders like schizophrenia and mood disorders, which increasingly are being addressed as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Today, the start of Autism Awareness Month, inspires us to focus on the highlights of our research progress and look ahead to further strengthening our investigative efforts. The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) published its annual Summary of Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Research today and recently posted the annual update of its Strategic Plan for ASD Research. In addition, today the Department of Health and Human Services released its Report to Congress on progress made under the Combating Autism Act of 2006, which includes information on recent activities and developments in autism research. I will summarize some of the findings in these reports. But first let's take a look at the numbers.
2009
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has made a substantial commitment to research designed to discover autism’s causes and improve diagnosis and treatment. Not only has NIMH become the lead institute for autism research at NIH, we have become the largest single source of funding for autism research in the country.
On October 5, 2009, researchers with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Massachusetts General Hospital published a new estimate of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) among children in the United States. Published online ahead of print in Pediatrics, the new estimate that roughly 1 in 90 U.S. children ages 3–17 were given an ASD diagnosis in 2007 is significantly higher than previous reports
