Illustration by Laurène Boglio

A flurry of tweets this week featured new findings about treating aggression and self-injury — manifestations of hyperactive catatonia — in children with profound autism.

Hello everyone. I’m excited to announce that we have a new publication.https://t.co/BHuByieRVf

In this manuscript, we report the use of alternative benzodiazepines (meaning, not lorazepam) in the treatment of hyperactive catatonia in profound autism. Here are some takeaways

— Joshua Ryan Smith, MD (@Joshua_RSmith) April 7, 2023

The study, published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology on 6 April, suggests that benzodiazepines other than lorazepam can help alleviate symptoms of hyperactive catatonia.

Although the study included only five participants, “using clonazepam, diazepam, valproic acid, memantine, and reducing antipsychotic medications was effective,” tweeted Joshua Ryan Smith of Vanderbilt University in a thread explaining his team’s work.

While our report only contains five patients, we found that using clonazepam, diazepam, valproic acid, memantine, and reducing antipsychotic medications was effective

Given the limited access to ECT across the world and the recent lorazepam shortages, this is a big deal.

— Joshua Ryan Smith, MD (@Joshua_RSmith) April 7, 2023

The drugs offer alternatives to lorazepam — the standard first-line treatment for catatonia — and electroconvulsive therapy, and provide hope for lorazepam non-responders. “Given the limited access to ECT across the world and the recent lorazepam shortages, this is a big deal,” Smith noted.

“This is fascinating!” tweeted Ava Gurba of Stony Brook University.

Thank you! We hopefully will have a larger retrospective coming out soon!

— Joshua Ryan Smith, MD (@Joshua_RSmith) April 7, 2023

“Feeling grateful seeing this absolutely vital work continuing to be published!” tweeted Cassie Stevens of the University of Kansas.

Feeling grateful seeing this absolutely vital work continuing to be published! Congratulations and thank you! @Joshua_RSmith https://t.co/XLSU8A6MmA

— Cassie Stevens (@cassjstev) April 7, 2023

“Important clinical lead for the hard to treat,” tweeted Meng-Chuan Lai of the University of Toronto.

Important clinical lead for the hard to treat (and for some hard to recognize) hyperactive catatonia in people with neurodevelopmental conditions. https://t.co/JMkhEbowo5

— Meng-Chuan Lai 賴孟泉 (@mengchuanlai) April 8, 2023

Elsewhere on Twitter, many scientists weighed in on a Spectrum article about the issues with academia’s reimbursement culture, especially for many early-career researchers.

“No one should have the costs of 1-3 conferences on their credit card while waiting months to be reimbursed by their institution,” tweeted Lillian Brady of Vanderbilt University, who was quoted in the article.

I was quoted in this article on the costs of conference travel for trainees… no one should have the costs of 1-3 conferences on their credit card while waiting months to be reimbursed by their institution. Reimbursement culture must end #ISaidWhatISaid https://t.co/6zhbPaXiTV

— Lillian J. Brady, PhD ????????‍???????? ??? (@DrLJBrady) April 7, 2023

“Absolutely agree,” wrote Lucia Peixoto of Washington State University.

Absolutely agree

— Dr. (Lucia) Peixoto ([email protected]) (@LuciaScience) April 8, 2023

“Reducing the obstacles so trainees can get travel advances” could directly address the problem, tweeted John Christianson of Boston College.

Completely agree and thank you for speaking up. Something we are working on is reducing the obstacles so trainees can get travel advances (common for profs) which can directly mitigate this problem. How this will work will vary by institute.

— JCBC lab (@JCBCneuro) April 10, 2023

Relying on reimbursement is especially tough on international students, said Lauren Kelly of the University of Manitoba, as they often “can only access credit cards with $500 limits.”

I’m surprised more don’t just use a lab credit card for their trainees’ flights, registration, etc? Then charge grant… We cannot expect trainees to wait weeks to be reimbursed and that is the easiest way to support them esp when conferences are so expensive nowadays

— Dr. Deanna Santer (@drdeannasanter) April 9, 2023

Deanna Santer, also of the University of Manitoba, tweeted that she was surprised labs don’t use a lab credit card to cover trainees’ travel expenses, adding that “we cannot expect trainees to wait weeks to be reimbursed and that is the easiest way to support them.”

“End reimbursement culture,” tweeted Joseph Smith of the University at Buffalo. Smith also pointed out that not everyone has access to credit cards or has the money to pay for such expenses up front.

End reimbursement culture. Everyone doesn’t have a credit card to fall back on. Not everyone’s family can loan them the money. Everyone doesn’t have $1000+ just sitting in their bank accounts while stipends are low and rents are high. Change these policies! https://t.co/WKfXbMwo5b

— Joseph Smith Jr., Ph.D. ???????????????? (@DrHazmatic) April 7, 2023

That’s it for this week’s Community Newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you saw in the autism research sphere, feel free to send an email to [email protected].

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Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/LKFB5071