Place, positionality, and priorities: experts' views on women's health at the Mexico-US border.

Improving health care in the Mexican-US transborder region presents challenges not only of harmonization of systems but differences in values and expectations for policies. We explore the contrasting and overlapping views of health experts in both countries regarding the ways in which geographic location, scale, and professional roles shape their notions of the region, priorities for women's health, and interpretations of the socio-cultural concept of gender in relation to health. The study is based on interviews with legislators, health administrators, health advocates, and researchers on each side of the border. We suggest ways in which more nuanced perspectives might be brought to bear in the policy discourses on the region.

Emotion Regulation Intensive Outpatient Programming: Development, Feasibility, and Acceptability.

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities (DD) often struggle with behavior management and emotion-regulation (ER). In this manuscript, we describe the results of a chart review examining a group treatment program designed to address ER deficits in youth with ASD and/or DD. The intensive 5 week program utilizes cognitive behavior, applied behavior analysis, and mindfulness techniques and includes biweekly child and parent groups. Results indicate that this program is feasible and associated with high caregiver satisfaction. Pre-and-post outcome results indicate statistically significant improvement on behavioral measures, but did not demonstrate significant improvment on the Pediatric Quality of Life Family Impact Module. Based on overall positive outcomes, a randomized controlled trial of the program is indicated.

Gastrointestinal microflora studies in late-onset autism.

Some cases of late-onset (regressive) autism may involve abnormal flora because oral vancomycin, which is poorly absorbed, may lead to significant improvement in these children. Fecal flora of children with regressive autism was compared with that of control children, and clostridial counts were higher. The number of clostridial species found in the stools of children with autism was greater than in the stools of control children. Children with autism had 9 species of Clostridium not found in controls, whereas controls yielded only 3 species not found in children with autism. In all, there were 25 different clostridial species found. In gastric and duodenal specimens, the most striking finding was total absence of non-spore-forming anaerobes and microaerophilic bacteria from control children and significant numbers of such bacteria from children with autism. These studies demonstrate significant alterations in the upper and lower intestinal flora of children with late-onset autism and may provide insights into the nature of this disorder.