WHAT WORKS BEST IN TREATING AUTISM: MEDICATION, BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION OR BOTH?

January 5, 2007

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute will host Lawrence Scahill, professor of nursing and child psychiatry at Yale University, on Wednesday, January 10, at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento. Scahill will speak twice: once at 4 p.m. and again at 6 p.m.

During a 4 p.m. technical presentation, Scahill will outline criteria for designing effective clinical trials in autism research. At a 6 p.m. community-interest lecture, he will provide an overview of medications and behavioral interventions used for treating children with autism who also exhibit serious behavioral problems — tantrums, aggression and self-injury — and whether these two approaches used separately or together work best. Both presentations are free and open to the public; no reservations are needed.

At Yale, Scahill is the director of the Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology, part of a multisite consortium focused on developing and testing pharmaceutical and behavioral treatments for children with autism. He is also actively involved in treatment research on obsessive-compulsive disorder and reducing tics in children and adults with Tourette syndrome. Scahill is a member of numerous boards and advisory groups, including the medical advisory board of the Tourette Syndrome Association, and he was recently inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.

Scahill is the fourth of nine distinguished lecturers in the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute's 2006-07 series. Upcoming speakers are Temple Grandin, Colorado State University (Feb. 14); Joseph Piven, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (March 14); Susan Bookheimer, UCLA (April 11); Leonard Abbeduto, University of Wisconsin (May 9, visit co-sponsored by the UC Davis School of Education); and Tony Charman, University College London (June 13).

For more information about this and future lectures, visit the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute Web site at  www.mindinstitute.org or call (916) 703-0280.

The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research into the causes and treatments of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome and learning disabilities.