Editor ’s Message—Issue Highlights, March–April 2017

Dear Colleagues: Welcome to the March–April 2017 issue of Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience. We start this issue with an interesting case series by Shroff titled, “Human Embryonic Stem Cells in the Treatment of Autism: A Case Series.” Here, investigators administered human embryonic stem cell therapy to three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an effort to improve blood perfusion in their brains, which theorectically improve motor, social, and cognition skills. After 3 to 4 treatment phases (each 4 to 6 weeks long) that were separated by 4- to 8-month gap phases, the authors report that the patients showed improvement in eye coordination, writing and balancing abilities, and cognitive skills; were no longer hypersensitive to sounds or smells; and spoke more clearly/loudly. The authors discuss their results and briefly describe potential mechanisms by which stem cells may improve brain blood perfusion in this patient population. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to support the use of human embryonic stem cell therapy in this patient population. Following this, in their study titled, “Interactive Voice Response and Text-based Self-report Versions of the Electronic Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale Are Equivalent,” Gwaltney et al sought to compare the equivalence of a new version of the electronic Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (eC-SSRS) that was administered on a tablet device with the existing interactive voice response (IVR) ve...
Source: Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Current Issue Editor's Message: Issue Highlights Amir H. Kalali Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience Source Type: research