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A drug discovered more than 100 years ago may hold the key to combating autism symptoms, according to a study.
Researcher Dr Robert Naviaux of the San Diego School of Medicine gave suramin, a drug first developed in 1916, to 10 autistic boys between the ages of five and 14, and noted transformative results.
"After the single dose, it was almost like a roadblock had been released," he said. "If the future studies show that there's continued health benefits, this could be a game-changer for families with autism."
The study, which has been published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, saw five of the participants receive suramin, while the remainder were given placebos. Included in the group were four non-verbal children – two six year olds and two 14 year olds.
"The six year old and the 14 year old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion," Naviaux told the UC San Diego Health website. "This did not happen in any of the children given the placebo."
Source: https://www.rt.com/usa/390222-autism-research-suramin-symptoms/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:40PM (19 children)
Well let's see now, if all you self-obsessed freaks with your tunnel-vision and inability to function socially take this treatment, suddenly you'll stop whining for basic income to make the rest of us pay you to be worthless leeches. Hey guess what, treating you with drugs is cheaper than taxing everybody to pay your basic income. That settles it. You're getting the drugs.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:47PM (12 children)
The hyperfocus / socially inept group that is well paid to make the things everyone else wants, are hardly the leeches.
Maybe you're thinking of the "can't code my way out of a paper bag" in between googling for snippets of already written code, while reading FaceTwit crowd.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:15PM (11 children)
You're hilarious because you think the hyperfocused socially inept group have jobs making the social media platforms everyone else wants. Coding is not a solitary endeavor anymore. You work in a social group or you don't work at all. Look at GitHub and you see the successful coders who have jobs are those whose profiles look the most like social media profiles.
The "can't code my way out of a paper bag" crowd are fully in control and they create more drama than code. They debate fiercely about irrelevant minutia of coding styles and codes of conduct which are more important than functioning code. They make decisions about whether to accept code based upon the social circle of the contributor instead of the merits of the code itself.
The solitary coders who don't have profile pics and don't have followers and don't chat with their friends in the issue trackers and are just hyperfocused coders who concentrate on coding are the unemployed basement dwellers who don't make any money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:58PM (7 children)
Original thread AC here. While you all socialize, I break your shit. It's ridiculously easy, because you can't code, you can just copy, imitate, and pose.
Because you can't focus on detail, you don't even understand how the layers of abstraction (often fail to) interact. I do, because I can remember technical arcania I saw only once, years ago.
Some industries still need reliable code, and are willing to pay for it. My work in QA has provided me a very comfortable income, TYVM.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:28PM (6 children)
Let me guess, you don't work in isolation. You report to a boss to whom you write reports. You know just how much irrelevant social posturing you need to lace into your reports to keep your job.
I can do QA too but I can't get paid for it, because my idea of QA is firing off a patch with a note that says, "Yo fuckface cuz joo too stoopid to fix yoor fucking shit I debugged it for joo now joo take my fucking patch and you fucking merge that sucker right now up yoor fucking ass!!!"
As you can tell, I don't have any patience for idiots and their broken code. Fixing the code is only half the job, and I'm really bad at the other half which is communicating the results.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday May 31 2017, @09:24PM (5 children)
No, but the others have enough common sense to let me focus on what I do best.
Nope, the boss generates the reports from Jira, nobody in the team needs to waste their time with collating reports.
If this happens to you, then it sucks to work where you are.
Believe it or not, there are places in which managers really understand their job: they are the enablers for the actual doers, not leeches.
See where your focus on socializing leads you? If you just limit your communication to the problem at hand and explain why it breaks and when/where it breaks, everybody would benefit. No "social communication" skills involved, just stick to the engineering problem.
I guess no amount of suramin is going to help you.
---
(and no, I'm not any of the AC-es above, but I can sympathize with the original AC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @09:47PM (1 child)
Gimme basic income, pruneface.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:13AM
sudo "take it yourself, figass".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @02:43AM (2 children)
Interesting. In the other thread you said you smoke about 20 a day. There is some evidence that many smokers are actually non-neurotypicals self-medicating with nicotine.
Do you get more or less autistic when you don't smoke? Serious question as, from memory, the nicotine was a help with ADHD which is sort of the opposite end of the spectrum.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 01 2017, @03:23AM (1 child)
I feel there's an element of truth in my case.
There's also an element of puzzlement - I tried vaping and find unsatisfying after a while - I'm not alone, I have a colleague in almost the same situation now - he's vaping as a substitute but now and then comes to pinch a real cigie from me. I reckon the other stuff the manufacturers put into the cigarettes somehow helps the delivery to the areas in need.
I'm not in the autistic spectrum, even if sometimes (in my "larval stages") it may seems so. I think I'm closer to a bipolar.
Nicotine helps in dampening the extremes: makes the depressive periods less acute, steals from the joy of intense activity and getting a lot of things done on the expense of physical/physiological needs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Sunday June 04 2017, @12:04AM
There's a few possibilities. One is that cigarettes also contain harmaline, a MAOI that greatly potentiates the nicotine (especially it's addictivness). MAOIs have also been used as anti-depressants on their own (not so much anymore).
Some people find that upping the nicotine dose to compensate helps a lot. Those wimpy cigalikes they sell at the mall probably can't deliver a proper dose. You need something in the 75-150 watt range. Personally I like a 0.5 ohm 24 gauge stainless steel coil and an 18650 battery rated for 30A discharge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:35PM (2 children)
Engineering in general is very collaborative as well, gone are the days of sitting in your cube or office and never having to talk to anyone else to get the project completed. You will need to pick up the phone time to time or even walk over and talk to someone in person rather than just sending emails. When I was last at an engineering conference and some kids asked me for advice during an outreach session I simply told them "don't neglect your soft skills, the world doesn't need more engineers who can't communicate and get along with others."
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:45PM (1 child)
Mmm. Well, you know, there are still some engineering types out here that are producing things on their own. You can speculate on why that might be, and sometimes, in some cases, you might even be right... but where you're not right is assuming that engineering in general requires collaboration. Some engineering types are perfectly capable of doing large, complex, many-faceted projects. Software and hardware. If you had one or two of those around, you might find you need a lot less collaboration and a lot more marketing. You also might be a little more cautious about those claims. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:58PM
It doesn't matter if the engineer is any good; what matters is how much social media buzz the engineer makes for self marketing.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:16PM (1 child)
Aside from the autists, can we implement this for the libertarian-left?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @02:55AM
It's a (possible) cure for autism, not an intelligence boost.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:42PM (1 child)
That's already a thing in the USA.
Specifically, in Alaska.
Since 1976.
It's called The Alaska Permanent Fund.
the rest of us pay you
That's not how they do it in Alaska.
The money comes from "the commonwealth".
Unlike other (clueless, corporate puppet) states who give away for free the privilege to do mineral extraction, Alaska charges corporations for that.
When ExxonMobil drills for oil in Alaska, the fund gets a cut and once a year that fund is disbursed equally among all the residents of Alaska.
As mentioned, it has worked just fine for decades.
...though a job that pays a living wage for every USAian would be even better.
...if only the people who "represent us" in DC would stop subsidizing the exporting of USAian jobs.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @01:00PM
This is not quite how it works. The Permanent Fund is controlled by the Alaskan Permanent Fund Corporation, which invests the fund in various bonds/stocks/etc. Every year, they payout a dividend to every eligible resident that applies for it (the Permanent Fund Dividend, know locally as the PFD). The payout is based on the earnings averaged over 5 years, and so varies from several hundred dollars to a few thousand. The actual fund itself is not split up, and I am unsure how much corporations actually pay into it anymore. I believe it was a one time levy that is now self sustaining.
Unsurprisingly, the state legislature is constantly trying to raid the fund to balance out some budget shortfall, usually with the promise of a final payout in the range of ten thousand dollars per resident. So far the residents have not fallen for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:49PM (1 child)
When crabs are in a bucket, they pull back down any crabs that try to clamber out and escape.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @01:41AM
I've never heard that one before. Interesting. I don't care if it's not true like the boiling frogs. It just sounds good and explains a complex sociological phenomenon.
(Not being sarcastic.)