MD, MSCS, psychiatry, autism, IDD Dir of Adult Autism Services Med Dir UTSW Richardson Clinic Med Dir Multispecialty Psych Clinic UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas
Joined October 2010
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I am speaking tomorrow at the 2026 Association of Medicine and Psychiatry Annual Meeting. Please check out the details of my talk here. lnkd.in/gdzCDpgG
Given the recent news of a published consensus definition of profound autism, I have some concerns about the very large group of autistic persons that are "severe but not profound." Are they going to be studied? How will that group be defined in research protocols?
Hugs Cafe expanding in McKinney. Trains adults with IDD/NDD. wfaa.com/article/news/local/…
I'm excited that our review on irritability in autistic adults has been published in Autism Research. This was spearheaded by my colleague Dr. Hsiang-Yuan Lin at the Univ. of Toronto. The field has languished for far too long. New approaches are needed. doi.org/10.1002/aur.70287
One of the highlights of #INSAR26 for me was when Luke G. from Kaiser P introduced me to two of his colleagues. I didn't really catch their names, but I had the opportunity to talk about psychiatric care for autistics adults. Then looking at badges, I realized that of of them 1/2
My overall takeaway is that #INSAR26 had more #profoundautism related content than the conferences that came before. And was overall low drama related to politics. I think it had the feel of people largely getting along. But that was through my limited vantage.
Gabriel Anzueto's poster (UT-Houston) presented data on folks with Down Syndrome having a clinically significant 2nd genetic variant/mutation. That's a light bulb moment for me. I see some of the very most ill Down Syndrome adults. I should be checking for this. 1/2 #INSAR26
Jennifer Hodnett presented results of a survey of ABA therapists regarding care of dangerous and severe behaviors. Very few of the therapists felt properly equipped and supported in doing this work. Imagine if you did the same survey of adult psychiatrists. 1/2 #INSAR26
Ryan Martin from Catalight presented data on ABA services (n=~10k). They used Vineland to approximate definition of Profound Autism. Another illustration of how it is hard sometimes to operationalize defintion of Profound Autism. Glad ABA research is here at #INSAR26.
Interesting study by Hsing-Chang Ni (and my collaborator Hsiang-Yuan Lin @ Toronto) on theta burst TMS. I will point out one thing he did which was unusual and cool--his patients were 8 to 30 years old. RCT w/ that age range in US? Impossible! Adults always left out! #INSAR26
I saw a poster that shocked me. They reported that 45 patients w/ profound autism on a single psych unit experienced 3,913 restraint/seclusion events. I'm a psychiatrist that worked in the "old days" of the Parkland Psych ER. Restraint/seclusion is not foreign to me .1/x #INSAR26
I talked to Dr. Kildahl--he told me in Norway that it is unheard of for autistic/IDD adults to live with their parents. They all live in government funded residential places, usually about 6 persons per residence. They vary in quality by municipality. 1/2 #INSAR26
Univ Colorado group led by Tartaglia has a study that CBD not effective for irritability and aggression in autistic children. I'm not surprised that it was not more effective than placebo. I was kind of surprised that the placebo effect was so poor. #INSAR26
A psychologist (Arvid Kildahl - Norway) uses a scale called the Psychopathology in Autism Checklist as a clinical scale for persons with autism+ID+challenging behaviors. Making note to self to see if it might have utility in my clinical practice. Ver2 is being developed. #INSAR26