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Query: UMLS:C0004352 (autism)
 32,579 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

During the 1970s, vitamins and vitamin therapy became household words. Vitamin therapy, better known as "orthomolecular psychiatry," is both appealing and very popular. The question that must be asked is: Does this popularity and appeal validate this form of therapy? This paper presents findings from various sources that give results of research in megavitamin nutritional therapy. The following categories are examined: learning disabilities in general, schizophrenia, autism, mental retardation and Down's syndrome, and hyperkinesis.
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PMID:Behavioral disorders, learning disabilities and megavitamin therapy. 296 2

Preference for social gaze as well as the percentage occurrence of social gaze, nonverbal social avoidance, and nonverbal repetitive behaviors were examined in autistic and nonautistic prepubertal males with the fragile X syndrome (fra[X]) during social interaction with a parent or stranger. Comparison groups were nonhandicapped, Down syndrome, atypical pervasive developmental disorder, and autistic males. The subjects with fra(X) and the nonhandicapped and Down syndrome control subjects discriminated parent from stranger as evidenced by their avoidance behavior. The overall percentage of avoidance was higher, however, for both parent and stranger, among the males with fra(X). Autistic and atypical groups without fra(X) failed to discriminate parent from stranger in their avoidance behavior. Possible explanations for these group differences in terms of language level or degree of language demand were ruled out. Implications for research concerning the relations among fra(X), autism, and mental retardation were discussed.
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PMID:Social gaze, social avoidance, and repetitive behavior in fragile X males: a controlled study. 296 90

Autistic adolescents with mild, moderate, and severe degrees of mental retardation, Down's syndrome adolescents, and clinically normal 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children were compared in their ability to understand a set of simple instrumental gestures. Almost all gestures were perfectly understood, that is, correctly responded to, by normal children from age 5 onwards, and by all the handicapped groups, regardless of diagnosis or degree of retardation. However, the ability to initiate such gestures on verbal request was generally less good, especially in the less able autistic groups. The same subjects were unobtrusively observed in the playground and during mealtime at their schools. Peer interactions were least frequent in the autistic subjects, regardless of degree of mental retardation. However, relative to interaction frequency, the autistic group used nonverbal instrumental gestures as a means of communication to the same extent as the other groups. Unlike Down's syndrome adolescents, or normal preschool children, no autistic adolescent ever used expressive gestures.
J Autism Dev Disord 1988 Jun
PMID:The understanding and use of interpersonal gestures by autistic and Down's syndrome children. 297 Apr 53

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales were used to assess adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome or autism. Matched for verbal mental age (MA), the groups did not differ in adaptive behavior; however, older individuals with Down syndrome had more skills than did younger ones in all areas measured. Skills did not change for the autistic group. For persons with Down syndrome, adaptive skills kept pace with verbal and nonverbal MA, whereas those with autism were delayed in communication and socialization relative to their nonverbal MA.
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PMID:Development of adaptive behavior in adolescents and young adults with autism and Down syndrome. 297 Aug 61

In a survey study of psychiatric morbidity, based on a representative sample from the Danish mental retardation register, 44 adults with Down's syndrome (DS) were compared with 258 other mentally retarded adults. Assessed by the parameters psychiatric disorder, behaviour problems, neurotic traits, and deviant social interaction, the DS group functioned better on all parameters. However, male and female DS patients were very different, the females constituting a superior well-functioning group while the males had major problems in every area. High prevalence rates of dementia and infantile autism were found in the DS group. General function rapidly decreased with age in DS patients.
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PMID:Psychiatric aspects of Down's syndrome. 297 26

Diet clearly influences neurotransmission. This can be important in grossly undernourished children. It can also be important in children in whom normal homeostatic mechanisms governing food intake are bypassed. Subtle differences in behavior can occur with physiologic variation in food intake. Components of foods can also be used as drugs. Starvation can impair neuronal maturation and can have lasting effects upon behavior and intellectual performance. The extent of starvation's impact upon the brain depends upon whether undernutrition occurred during a critical phase in brain development. Short-term fasting has small, but significant, effects upon intellectual performance. Even when gross malnutrition is not present, subtle changes in diet may modulate brain function. Tryptophan, tyrosine, and choline in the diet are used as precursors for neuronal synthesis of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, and acetylcholine, respectively. It is likely that the brain's sensitivity to certain components of the diet exists to permit monitoring of food intake by the central nervous system. Tryptophan, tyrosine, and choline may be useful in treatment of humans with sleep disorders, pain depression, mania, hypertension, shock, or dyskinesias. Other components of the diet that may affect behavior include food additives, sugar, and caffeine. Food additives may exacerbate hyperactive symptoms in a small proportion of children with attention deficit disorder. Given that there is little potential for harm and that there is a subpopulation that may respond, a trial of a diet that contains no food additives may be a valid diagnostic approach for children with attention deficit disorder who do not respond to stimulant therapy or for children for whom stimulant therapy is not desired. Refined sugar has been blamed for many behavioral abnormalities. Subtle effects of carbohydrate upon behavior have been reported, but the existing data do not support the hypothesis that sucrose or fructose exert special effects upon neurotransmission. Caffeine is easily detected as a stimulant by humans, but it has little effect upon cognitive function. Administration of large doses of vitamins has no beneficial effect in most humans with schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, autism, Down's syndrome, or drug addiction. Large doses of niacinamide may even be harmful, as they may cause hepatic damage.
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PMID:Dietary influences on neurotransmission. 302 51

The study assessed free play and response to modeled symbolic play with animate toys and realistic and substitute accessories in 10 autistic children and 10 Down's syndrome and 10 normal preschooler controls. Groups were matched on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test mental age (PPVT MA) range and Mdn (2.5 years). Autistic children played less than controls, imitated less well, and, on structured baseline trials, showed lower level play. Symbolic fluency differentiated all groups in structured play. Symbolic fluency for free and structured play was positively correlated with PPVT MA in autistic children; level of play was most highly correlated with PPVT MA in normal children. Findings suggested impaired imitative capacity and symbolic functioning in autism.
J Autism Dev Disord 1981 Dec
PMID:Symbolic play in autistic, Down's, and normal children of equivalent mental age. 618 16

Cognitive functioning in autistic subjects was investigated by employing ERP recordings. The sample included four autistic patients, with five normal subjects and four Down's syndrome patients serving as the two control groups. The P300 component was investigated under three different experimental conditions, that is; "No-task," "Counting," and "Keypress." Two out of four autistic subjects were able to perform the required task under the Counting condition. However, none of them were able to complete the task for the Key-press condition. Autistic subjects demonstrated a lower amplitude of the P300 component under the No-task condition as compared to the other two groups. It was speculated that the autistic, as opposed to the other two groups, had some cognitive difficulties in the "active stimulus evaluating process."
J Autism Dev Disord 1983 Mar
PMID:P300 and stimulus evaluation process in autistic subjects. 622 29

An experimental analysis of a case of chronic ruminative vomiting in a 15-year-old, profoundly retarded, Down's syndrome boy addressed the consequences of vomiting in the postmealtime environment. The experiment compared four treatments in each hour-long session using a multiple reinforcement schedule with order of the following procedures counterbalanced over days in a Latin square design: differential reinforcement of any behaviors other than vomiting (DRO) in which periods of no vomiting were followed by reinforcement and vomiting postponed reinforcement; differential reinforcement of specific behaviors alternative to vomiting (DRI) in which conjoint periods of no vomiting and sustained toy play were followed by reinforcement and the lack of either postponed reinforcement; extinction plus reinforcement of alternative behavior in which vomiting was ignored but toy play was reinforced; extinction in which vomiting was ignored. Data revealed an orderly dual cyclical pattern of vomiting throughout the day, with increased vomiting in the morning and immediately following food ingestion. Postluncheon treatments emphasizing reinforcement of alternative behavior were more successful in decreasing vomiting than DRO or extinction alone.
J Autism Dev Disord 1980 Jun
PMID:Chronic ruminative vomiting: a comparison of four treatment procedures. 624 28

Determinations were made of the plasma cyclic AM level to examine its relationship with hyperkinesis (Werry-Weiss-Peters Activity Scale, WWPAS) and other features of mental disorders in 80 children, of whom 21 had early infantile autism, 15 hyperkinetic mental retardation, 12 minimal brain dysfunction and 32 Down's syndrome. In autistic and hyperkinetic mentally retarded children, the plasma cyclic AMP levels were higher than in normal children and were positively correlated with the WWPAS score. In children with minimal brain dysfunction, the plasma cyclic AMP level was significantly lower than in normal children and was not correlated with the WWPAS score. In children with Down's syndrome, the plasma cyclic AMP level was somewhat higher than in normal children.
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PMID:Plasma cyclic AMP level in psychiatric diseases of childhood. 624 42


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