Documentary film highlights research on autism

February 3, 2014

Massachusetts General Hospital hosted the premiere last month of the documentary film "Sounding the Alarm," about the problems faced by people with autism. Dr. Christopher McDougle, director of Mass General’s Lurie Center for Autism, is featured in the film, and in a recent interview with the Boston Globe discussed several of these challenges. Among them, he said, is the often difficult transition into adulthood. The opportunities for many with more severe forms of the disorder end when they leave high school; they often encounter a lack of vocational opportunities, social opportunities, educational opportunities, and places to live.

Dr. McDougle is internationally recognized in both the clinical and the research arenas for his work on neurodevelopmental disorders that extend into adulthood. Currently he is collaborating with the Martinos Center's Jacob Hooker, Nicole Zurcher and colleagues to advance our understandings of autism, imaging patients with the disorder using MR-PET and a marker of neuroinflammation.

The investigators are now recruiting study participants, including both controls and individuals with autism spectrum disorders. To learn more, visit the Lurie Center for Autism research page or the Hooker Research Group website.