Guanfacine, a non-stimulant ADHD medication, reduced hyperactivity in autistic children in a placebo-controlled trial. A 2026 review argues it may also steady prefrontal brain signaling and calm the brain’s immune cells, but that immune effect has never been tested with guanfacine itself.1 Research Highlights Hyperactivity fell in the largest autism trial: in 62 autistic children, …
A 2026 meta-analysis of 50 studies estimated that about 1 in 3 people with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) have ADHD (33%), and that roughly 1 in 10 have autism (11%), seizures (11%), depression (13%), or anxiety (12%).1 Every one of those figures sits well above typical population rates, but the individual studies disagreed so widely …
A Kaiser Permanente Southern California cohort involving 294,937 children linked extreme prenatal nighttime heat to autism diagnosis by age 5, with stronger associations at the 99th percentile than the 90th percentile.1 Compared with nighttime minimum temperature, daytime maximum temperature did not show the same confirmed whole-pregnancy pattern. Research Highlights Nighttime heat carried the main signal: …
A 2026 Spanish Rett Syndrome Behavior Questionnaire validation preprint found strong test-retest reliability across 51 caregivers, including an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.907 and a 31-person short-interval subset with Pearson r2 = 0.8663.1 The result supports Spanish-language research access, but it is linguistic validation rather than proof that the scale diagnoses Rett syndrome or measures …
A 2026 NF1 mouse-model study found a gut-brain signal that was strongest in males: Nf1 +/- mice had altered gut microbiome composition, higher relative brain mass in 2 cohorts, reduced sociability, and combined autism-like phenotype shifts, with male microbiome beta diversity differing from controls at p = 0.0120.1 The result is a preclinical mechanism lead, …
A matched case-control study of 50 children with autism spectrum disorder and 50 controls found that newborn amino acid metabolism overlapped with both later autism diagnosis and prenatal air-pollution exposure.1 The central pathway, aspartate and asparagine metabolism, was associated with autism (p = 0.01), pregnancy PM2.5 (p < 0.001), first-trimester PM2.5 (p < 0.001), and …
A 2026 medRxiv preprint using parent-cocreated sensory-related outcome measures found that 83% of children and teens improved on at least 1 PROMIS domain during 6 months of bumetanide treatment.1 The result is interesting, but the unmasked single-case design means the strongest claim is about sensitive outcome tracking, not definitive bumetanide efficacy. Research Highlights Most participants …