Stanford Links Brain-Chemistry Deficit To Autistic Children's Social Struggles

By ERIN DIGITALE/ pediatrics science writer for Stanford

A brain-chemistry deficit in children with autism may help to explain their social difficulties, according to new findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The research team found a correlation between low levels of vasopressin, a hormone involved in social behavior, and the inability of autistic children to understand that other people’s thoughts and motivations can differ from their own.

The research was published July 22 in PLOS ONE.

“Autistic children who had the lowest vasopressin levels in their blood also had the greatest social impairment,” said the study’s senior author, Karen Parker, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

The findings raise the possibility that treatment with vasopressin might reduce social problems for autistic children who have low vasopressin levels, a hypothesis that Parker and her team are now testing in a clinical trial. However, the new research also showed that children without autism can have low vasopressin levels without displaying social impairment, Parker noted; in other words, autism is not explained by a vasopressin deficit alone.

Read the entire article on the medical findings here via Stanford Medicine News Center.

• Also see:
• Ten Things to Do After Your Child is Diagnosed with Autism
• Do Children You Know Have iPad Addictions?

--Stanford news Service

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