Media Release

August 17 2009

SA autism research heads international conference

Autism researcher Dr Manya Angley (right) and PhD student Lynn Wang New research developments into autism from scientists at the University of South Australia will be presented at an international conference in Sydney this week.

Dr Manya Angley from UniSA’s Sansom Institute for Health Research and PhD students Lynn Wang and Penelope Main will be involved in five presentations, including a keynote address, at the Asia Pacific Autism Conference 2009, at the Sydney Convention Centre from August 20-22.

In a keynote symposia, Dr Angley will discuss complementary and alternative medicine use in autism.

Her research has found parents and carers of children with autism often turn to alternative medicines because mainstream medicine doesn’t have a solution that addresses the core deficits of autism: communication and language impairment, socialisation, and restricted and repetitive behaviours.

“Conventional medicines only address the symptoms of autism, they’re kind of a ‘band-aid’ treatment and they also have many side effects,” she said.

“These are key reasons why carers opt for complementary medicines. However, complementary medicines are not a ‘magic bullet”. More randomised control trials are needed to examine their evidence base.”

PhD student Lynn Wang will have a poster session at the conference on her discovery into a laboratory test that may assist autism diagnosis (diagnosis is currently based on a cluster of clinical behaviours). Dr Angley said a high frequency of gastrointestinal disturbance is reported in children with autism.

“Lynn’s work has found that some children with autism, those who had concurrent gastrointestinal disturbance, had higher levels a certain chemical in their urine called IAG,” she said.

“So if we were to give these children with this urinary biomarker over-the-counter probiotics, it could improve gastrointestinal symptoms which may in turn reduce the manifestations of autism. It won’t be relevant for all children with autism. Our next step is to conduct rigorous clinical trials, to determine whether or not such interventions have a role in autism management.”

UniSA research on sensory subtypes in autism will also be presented at the conference. Dr Angley said this research found three subtypes in autism, based on various domains of sensory processing including visual, taste, touch and movement.

Autism is estimated to affect up to one in 160 Australian children. Dr Angley heads the Autism Research Group based at UniSA.

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