In Rare Cases, Scientists Link Autism to Folate Deficiency

In the fall of 2006, Liz and Peter Bell started to notice behavioral and neurological regression in their 13-year-old son, Tyler.His symptoms quickly progressed from what his parents thought was typical teenage sluggishness to full-blown catatonia. One morning, his mother started the shower for him and then went to help the other children get ready. “When I came back ten minutes later he was still standing there, shivering, hadnʼt even reached for the towel,” she recalls.Tyler had been diagnosed with autism ten years earlier, but till then, he had still had strong motor abilities, even going on 20-mile bicycle rides with his family. Those skills disappeared over the course of a few months.By the spring of 2007, Tyler wasnʼt eating or talking much, and his right foot dragged across the ground when he walked. He “looked very Parkinsonian,” she says.Trying to make sense of Tylerʼs sudden deterioration, his neurologist in Sacramento, Michael Chez, gave him a complete medical work-up ― including a spinal tap to collect a sample of cerebrospinal fluid.Read more at...SFARI, September 2008.