Author Interviews, Autism, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA / 06.10.2025
Brain Imaging Identifies Subset of Autism Patients Who May Benefit from Alzheimer’s Medication
Memantine to Treat Social Impairment in Youths With ASD
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_70898" align="alignleft" width="143"] Dr. Joshi[/caption]
Gagan Joshi, MD
Director, The Alan & Lorraine Bressler Clinical and Research Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Associate Director, The Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Program
Associate Program Director, MGH Fellowship in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Rovee Endowed Chair in Child Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Intellectually capable individuals with autism often face significant challenges in social functioning, yet pharmacologic treatments specifically targeting social impairments are lacking. Our prior neuroimaging research identified abnormally elevated brain glutamate levels in intellectually capable youth with autism, suggesting a potential neurochemical pathway underlying social difficulties. Based on these findings, we examined the effects of memantine—a glutamate-modulating medication—for the treatment of autism.
Dr. Singer[/caption]
Daniel E. Singer, MD
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Professor in the Department of Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Division of General Internal Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA, 02114
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Atrial fibrillation (AF) raises the risk of ischemic stroke 4-5-fold and this risk is largely reversible by oral anticoagulants (OAC). These facts are part of the core knowledge of internal medicine and the basis of multiple guidelines. They are based on studies of patients with persistent or predominantly “heavy burden” paroxysmal AF completed in the 1990s.
More recent studies using cardiac implantable devices (CIEDs: implantable defibrillators, pacemakers, etc) which have the capacity to monitor heart rhythm continuously have found that many older patients have brief, often undiagnosed, episodes of AF. Several of these studies have found that strokes occur during periods of sinus rhythm temporally distant from a preceding episode of AF. This has led to a widespread suspicion that AF is not a direct causal risk factor but a risk “marker” indicating the presence of other truly causal features like a diseased left atrium (atrial myopathy). If the risk marker hypothesis is correct, then long-term anticoagulation is needed even for brief and rare episodes of AF (assuming the patient’ s CHA2DS2-VASc score is high enough). The key problem with prior prospective studies using CIEDs was that only a small number of strokes were observed leading to inadequate statistical power.
Our study addressed this power problem by linking the very large Optum electronic health record database which could identify ischemic strokes with the Medtronic CareLink database of long-term, continuous heart rhythm records of patients with CIEDs. We ended up studying 891 individuals who had an ischemic stroke and had 120 days of continuous heart monitoring prior to the stroke.
Dr. Blumenthal[/caption]
Kimberly G. Blumenthal, MD, MSc
Massachusetts General Hospital
The Mongan Institute
Boston, MA 02114
[caption id="attachment_57828" align="alignleft" width="100"]
Dr. Krantz[/caption]
Matthew S. Krantz, MD
Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Department of Medicine,
Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
Nashville, Tennessee
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: During the initial COVID-19 vaccine campaign with healthcare workers in December 2020, there was an unexpected higher than anticipated rate of immediate allergic reactions after Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. This prompted both patient and provider concerns, particularly in those with underlying allergic histories, on the associated risks for immediate allergic reactions with the mRNA vaccines.
Because of the significantly improved effectiveness of two doses of an mRNA vaccine compared to one dose, it was important to determine if those who experienced immediate allergic reaction symptoms after their first dose could go on to tolerate a second dose safely. 
Dr. Mezue[/caption]
Kenechukwu Ndubisi Mezue, M.D
Fellow in 
Dr. Yonker[/caption]
Lael Yonker, MD
Pediatric Pulmonology
Director, MGH Cystic Fibrosis Center
Principal Investigator, Pediatric COVID biorepository
Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Children were initially felt to be spared from the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we show that children can become sick from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and even if the initial illness is mild, some go on to develop a severe inflammatory illness after the initial illness. We also show that children can carry very high levels of virus early in the course of infection, suggesting they may play a larger role in spreading the virus than previously thought.
Dr. Alladina[/caption]
Jehan Alladina MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: During the pandemic, clinicians around the world have shared anecdotal experiences to help inform care of patients with COVID-19. However, these anecdotes and observations, without careful analysis, can bias clinicians; many clinicians have even recommended experimental therapies based on this information alone.
To that end, the goal of our study was to rigorously examine the respiratory failure experienced by critically ill patients with COVID-19 and understand their response to the standards of care for respiratory failure.
