Fever may ease effects of Autism
Parents of young people with autistic disorders often say they notice that symptoms calm down when the children have a fever. A new study confirms that this may be the case.

Writing in Pediatrics, researchers say children with disorders in what is known as the autism spectrum tend to be less irritable and hyperactive, among other improvements, after a period of high temperature. The lead author is Laura K. Curran.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore asked the parents of 30 children, ages 2 to 18, to keep track of their child's behaviour during a fever and in the days after, when the child appeared well again. Most parents reported at least some improvement in cases where children had fevers of 100.4 degrees or higher.

Fever has long been thought to ease the burden of some illnesses, the study notes.

In the case of autism, it is unclear how fever might help. Although it is common for people running a temperature to become lethargic, the researchers said this did not account for all the improvements in the children studied.
Science Times