I caught up today with Dr. Dan Coury, medical director of the Autism Treatment Network (http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/programs/atn/), the nation’s first network of physicians and hospitals devoted to comprehensive treatment for children with an autism diagnosis.

It wasn’t that long ago that autism was regarded as a mental-health problem that pediatricians shunned and insurance companies wouldn’t cover.

That’s slowly changing, said Coury, who was in town to talk to autism spectrum disorder professionals at Children’s Village. When he’s not advocating for medical treatment for children with an autism diagnosis, Coury is a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Ohio State University.

Numbers tell the story. About one in 150 kids is diagnosed on the autism spectrum disorder these days. That compares to one in 2,000 to 10,000 roughly 20 years ago.

Parents have become increasingly active in advocating for their children, Coury said, which is a good thing given the medical community’s history of benign neglect.

“Many families complain that doctors don’t pay attention to their (autistic) children’s physical symptoms,” Coury said, including gastrointestinal (GI) problems like diarrhea and constipation.

Coury said kids with autism spectrum disorder seem to have a higher number of GI complaints, but there’s not enough data yet to determine if the frequency is related to the disorder. The Autism Treatment Network, only about a year old, aims to look at that relationship, among other things.

The network’s goal is to publish guidelines for treatment to the medical community. The nearest Autism Treatment Network site is in Portland at the Oregon Health & Science University.

Coury said recent research news out of Seattle Children’s that Celexa is no better than a placebo in treating repetitive behaviors in autistic children is disappointing. There was hope that Celexa, with its lower incidence of severe side effects, might supplant Risperdal, a psychotropic drug with significant side effects, including weight gain, high blood sugar and diabetes.

— Leah Beth Ward