Seeking Counsel

Many parents of children with autism are eager to volunteer for studies aimed at discovering genetic risk factors for the disorder.Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who initially show interest in participating in a clinical trial don't follow through. Daunted by logistic, economic and privacy concerns, not to mention notoriously long and confusing consent forms, most of them eventually drop out of the process.These hurdles could be overcome if clinical researchers were to add genetic counselors to their teams, argues a commentary published in March in Science Translational Medicine.Read more at...SFARI, April 2011.