4 news items this week
On Friday, March 13, 2026, the 25th National Autism Congress took place in Utrecht. The program stood out for its breadth: intercultural care, sexuality, lived experience, and depression in minimally speaking autistic people. It suggests Dutch autism care is slowly looking beyond behavior and diagnosis alone.
New research describes something that is often underestimated: online interaction is not automatically less real. Participants felt less scrutinized online, less preoccupied with their bodies, and freer to respond at their own pace. For support, that means digital social space can sometimes be more accessible than face-to-face contact.
Researchers from Brown and Harvard show how powerfully top-level public claims can shape care. After a White House autism briefing, acetaminophen use in emergency care during pregnancy dropped, while leucovorin prescriptions for children rose sharply. This happened without a new guideline or strong new evidence.
On March 10, the U.S. FDA approved leucovorin only for a rare folate transport disorder, not for autism. In practice, that corrects earlier political claims. The takeaway is straightforward: hopeful messaging is not the same as solid evidence for broad autism treatment use.
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