Autism group enrolling new participants

EAST PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment, a group of the state’s leading experts on autism research, education, health and services, is currently enrolling new participants in its confidential statewide registry. The data collected from the large-scale registry will help identify genes involved in autism spectrum disorders and related developmental disorders to better understand the origins of autism.

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that emerges in childhood. Autistic warning signs include complex symptoms that appear prior to age three, such as abnormal communication and social interaction, and rigid and repetitive stereotyped behaviors. Options for diagnosis and treatment of autism remain limited – leading to the need for larger-scale studies of the origins of autism, and how best to identify and provide effective treatment as soon as possible.

The consortium is led by Dr. Eric Morrow, an assistant professor in biology at Brown University and a genetics researcher at Bradley Hospital, and Stephen Sheinkopf, an assistant professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a clinical psychologist and researcher at Women & Infants Hospital. The consortium team will initially enroll 2,000 children and adults living in Rhode Island and surrounding communities, who have been carefully assessed clinically, into a confidential research registry.

The data collected from the group will help identify genes involved in autism spectrum disorders and related developmental disorders.

- Advertisement -

No posts to display