Kristina Blake: Hey, I’m Kristina from the Autism News NetWORK and I’m here with Dr. Uhde and I’m going to ask him some of your questions. Tell us about your work with IOP.

Dr. Uhde: Well, I’m the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. I’ve been there about 12 years now.

Kristina Blake: What do you most enjoy about working at IOP?

Dr. Uhde: What I most enjoy is actually working with a group of incredible clinicians and investigators that develop new treatments for brain disorders.

Kristina Blake: Why are your thoughts on the new therapy park?

Dr. Uhde: Oh, I’ve got a lot of thoughts about the new therapy park. I think about is as being a home, a sanctuary. When people come to their home and they’ve had a tough day at work or at school or interacting with people, you always know that your home is a safe place. That you can be you in your home and not worry about what people are thinking or how they’re going to treat you. The therapy park would be a home away from home where you can go there and just be yourself.

Kristina Blake: What do you know about the ANN?

Dr. Uhde: I know a lot about it. I think it’s the most exciting, innovative program that we have within our department at the present time. It’s an extraordinary new initiative. I mean, one of the things that I think is most important about it is that a lot of people don’t know much about Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders and this is an opportunity to actually educate the public about all the nuances and aspects about Autism that people have very little awareness of in general.

Kristina Blake: What’s the toughest part of your job as the Chair?

Dr. Uhde: Well, the toughest part of the job is getting Dr. Gwynette to write a grant that gets funded and we’re hoping that it will take place with this Autism Network.

Kristina Blake: Tell us about your interest in sleep and anxiety.

Dr. Uhde: It’s an interest that goes way back and so I have an interest in the relationship between anxiety disorders and sleep and by the way, one of the things we need to learn a lot more about is sleep and people that are suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorders. We actually need to learn a lot more about that in particular.

Dr. Uhde: The other area I have an interest in is what’s called sensory processing. So that could be smells and the odor or taste or touch and some people, you’d have to tell me, my understanding is that some people with Autism Spectrum Disorders have a great sensitivity to different types of sensory stimuli. Is that true?

Kristina Blake: Yeah.

Dr. Uhde: Yeah. So why that is and how the brain processes those different stimuli is something that we need also to learn a lot more about. And the Autism Network can educate the public about those types of facts that people with different disorders have to deal with.

Dr. Uhde: Do you think that people in general that you meet are knowledgeable and aware of Autism?

Kristina Blake: I think, on the whole, yes. And as we get more and more out, they will know more about it.

Dr. Uhde: Yes. And that’s why the network that you’re developing and working on is so incredible because people need to learn and I think people want to learn, but there’s just too few resources out there to educate the public. So having people that are dealing with those issues that become educators for the public as a whole is an incredibly important and valuable effort. That’s why I think this is the most exciting project and effort that’s taking place in our department at the present time.

Kristina Blake: Well, thank you for taking your time with us.

Dr. Uhde: Well, thank you. I appreciate talking with you and keep up the good work. Okay.