Question:
I believe that robby's pdd-nos is neurologically/biochemically based as well. Has anyone out there heard anything about neurological damage due to pre-natal/neo-natal oxygen deprivation? I read some tiny snippit suggesting this that was written ages ago and haven't seen any literature or research on it since. My brother, robby was blue when he was born and spent the first few hours of his life in a heat/ oxygen bed....

Answer: Oxygen deprivation (hypoxia, anoxia) is a risk for early neurological damage. The autopsy studies in autism have reported a loss of cerebellar Purkinje and granule cells in 100% of cases (NIH data). Animal studies have shown that the cerebellum is specifically vulnerable for this type of damage. Like autism itself, oxygen deprivation prenatally and during labor and delivery has many presumed causes (genetic, metabolic, environmental, use of drugs including both illicit street drugs and physician prescribed medications, etc). Attached is an abstract that demonstrates how a history of prenatal or perinatal anoxia increases the risk for neurological damage and how the risk is specific to cerebellar damage, which is what has been found in autism.