House Says Autism Research Funding Will Continue

On Tuesday the House of Representatives approved legislation to reauthorize federal funding for autism research when it passed the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act. The bill amends the Public Health Service Act to extend and reauthorize through Fiscal 2014 the surveillance and research program for autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities, as well as the education, early detection, and intervention of these conditions. The bill still needs Senate approval. 

One initiative to pinpoint autism cases earlier than is now the case is to train pediatricians to conduct screenings. Read a description of this effort in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/16/16.1.full. And for an in-depth review of the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of autism, see the Textbook of Autism Spectrum Disorders, from American Psychiatric Publishing. Information on this book is posted at www.appi.org/SearchCenter/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?ItemId=62341.

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