Children with autism have improved their skill in safely crossing the street after practicing the challenging task using a computer-based virtual reality street environment, according to a study of the University of Haifa in Israel.

A research team from the university's Department of Occupational Therapy and the Haifa Ofer School for Children with Autism found that a computer simulator is more effective in teaching street-crossing than the traditional classroom teaching or practicing it in the natural setting, which is dangerous

A new study has found that cases of autism in California continuously rose from 1995 to 2007 despite a ban on a mercury-rich vaccine preservative suspected of causing the disorder in children.

The study conducted by researchers from the state Department of Public Health and published in the January issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry is another evidence rejecting thimerosal exposure as a risk factor in autism. According to the Fresno Bee, doctors said the study "should reassure parents that the disorder is not caused by vaccinations

An Australian medical study has found that fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids may stop young people from developing schizophrenia, a psychotic condition characterized by hallucinations and delusions.

In an experiment conducted by researchers from the Orygen Research Centre in Melbourne, only three percent of 40 people aged 13 to 24 and previous sufferers of hallucinations and delusions developed schizophrenia one year after taking capsules of fish oil over a period of three months

A Pennsylvania district judge on Thursday ordered a Butler County doctor to stand trial on charges including manslaughter for causing the death of a 5-year-old autistic boy by incorrectly administering a controversial chemical treatment.

In August 2005, Dr. Roy Kerry of Portersville used the wrong drug and administered it incorrectly while trying to use chelation therapy on Abubakar Tariq Nadama

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called on parents about the need for children to be screened for autism twice by age 2. The group raised the warning amid new findings that 1 in 150 children in the United States suffers from this developmental disorder.

They stressed that while there is no cure to this kind of disorder, and early detection can lessen its severity