Vanderbilt receives grant to study improving hospitalization for children with autism

The Autism Treatment Network on Physical Health (AIR-P) recently awarded one of three research grants to Kevin Sanders, M.D., assistant professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and medical director of the Treatment & Research Institute on Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) and the Fragile X Treatment Research Program.

Sanders' grant will concentrate on “Improving Hospitalizations for Children with ASD: Testing the Cost and Clinical Efficacy of Integrated Behavioral Intervention.” This study proposes to implement and test a specific brief Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) model for assessing and responding to severe challenging behavior during acute medical and behavioral hospitalization for children with ASD.

The research awards come from the AIR-P Network RFA ATN-AIR-14-07 to support one-year innovative pilot proposals.