Enhancing the Impact of Genomics Research in Autism through Integration of Research Results into Routine Care Pathways-A Case Series.

The return of genetic results (RoR) to participants, enrolled as children, in autism research remains a complex process. Existing recommendations offer limited guidance on the use of genetic research results for clinical care. We highlight current challenges with RoR and illustrate how the use of a guiding framework drawn from existing literature facilitates RoR and the clinical integration of genetic research results.

Immune function in autistic children.

Background: There have been reports that some children with autistic spectrum disorders have abnormal immune function. However, data in this area remain scarce and conflicting.

Objective: To evaluate the immune function of a series of autistic children in the context of this proposed association.

Knowledge structures in illness narratives: development and reliability of a coding scheme.

Illness narratives reflect patients' underlying illness schemas or models of illness as well as efforts to position themselves vis-à-vis a specific interlocutor and social context. Although the literature on illness narratives in medical anthropology has been dominated by the explanatory model perspective, people may use other types of knowledge structures to frame and construct their conceptions of symptoms. For this study, we developed operational definitions and a coding manual for three types of putative knowledge schemas: prototypes, chain complexes, and explanatory accounts.