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

The prevalence, in children aged under 15, of severe impairments of social interaction, language abnormalities, and repetitive stereotyped behaviors was investigated in an area of London. A "socially impaired" group (more than half of whom were severely retarded) and a comparison group of "sociable severely mentally retarded" children were identified. Mutism or echolalia, and repetitive stereotyped behaviors were found in almost all the socially impaired children, but to a less marked extent in a minority of the sociable severely retarded. Certain organic conditions were found more often in the socially impaired group. A subgroup with a history of Kanner's early childhood autism could be identified reliably but shared many abnormalities with other socially impaired children. The relationships between mental retardation, typical autism, and other conditions involving social impairment were discussed, and a system of classification based on quality of social interaction was considered.
J Autism Dev Disord 1979 Mar
PMID:Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: epidemiology and classification. 15 84

Mutism or echolalia and failure to analyze sentences for their deep structures are characteristics of the language behavior of autistic children. The experimental literature indicates that cognitive processes which underlie the construction of a lexicon or the learning of ordering rules may be disturbed in these children. The inability to coordinate visual and aural stimulation inhibits lexical development, while difficulties in sequencing and use of inappropriate sequencing codes inhibits the growth of a productive grammar. It is suggested that remedial programs which include training in these processes may prove beneficial, and that substitute modes of information processing which the autistic child uses may be exploited to teach language forms.
J Autism Child Schizophr 1975 Dec
PMID:Cognitive processing and linguistic reference in autistic children. 110

Catatonia, once solely attributed to schizophrenia, is now thought to be associated with many disorders. Autistic disorder shares some symptoms with catatonia, namely, mutism, echopraxia/echolalia, and sterotypes. Catatonia in autism may therefore be a variant of the autistic condition. However, organic deficits and psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, have also been deficits and psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, have also been linked with the manifestation of catatonia. Individuals with autism presenting with these comorbid conditions may therefore be at increased risk for catatonia. Little is written of the association of autism and catatonia to clarify the possibility of catatonia as a variant or a sign of a comorbid condition. The authors discuss three autistic patients and suggest specific etiologies for the symptoms of catatonia which presented in these cases. The therapeutic and diagnostic importance of comorbid disorders in autism is stressed.
J Autism Dev Disord 1991 Dec
PMID:Catatonia in autistic disorder: a sign of comorbidity or variable expression? 177 64

The hypothesis that prognosis in autism would vary across subgroups was explored through cluster analysis of 52 cases. Four clusters related mainly to presence or absence of mutism, speech pathology, and lack of social responsiveness. Children who were mute and socially unresponsive on admission had particularly poor outcomes at follow-up 4.5 yr. later. For a third of the 35 subject followed, the Vineland Social Quotients (mean 46.0 for all subjects) had declined.
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PMID:The taxonomy and course of childhood autism. 262 42

The proportions of subjects with severe social impairment and those retaining the features of childhood autism were investigated in a population of mentally retarded adults in a long-stay hospital. The results confirmed the findings of an earlier study of mentally retarded children (Wing & Gould, 1979) that the administrative category of mental retardation includes a substantial minority of people with severe impairment of two-way social interaction. Such social impairment occurred in 38% of the adult population and was very significantly associated with abnormalities of communication and imaginative activities. Muteness, repetitive stereotyped behaviour, including repetitive speech, and a range of behaviour problems also occurred more frequently in the socially impaired group. Two methods of sub-classifying the socially impaired were compared. Classification based on the severity of social impairment gave more statistically significant associations with behavioural and psychological variables than did a method based on the presence or absence of typical autism. The implications of these findings and their relevance for management and planning of services for the mentally retarded were briefly discussed.
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PMID:Prevalence of autism and related conditions in adults in a mental handicap hospital. 714 7

This longitudinal case study challenges the assumption that individuals with autism who have severely restricted speech and language skills have a poor prognosis for further development of expressive oral language. The study follows the development of a woman with autism from mutism at age 10 to acquisition of a range of spoken and written language skills at age 26. The intervention in which the woman participated and her skills pre- and post-intervention and at two follow-up assessments are documented. The results support the hypotheses that speech and language development may proceed after mutism associated with limited verbal imitation and phoneme production skills, that some skills may plateau or decline, and that both spoken and written language may become viable forms of communication.
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PMID:Language acquisition after mutism: a longitudinal case study of autism. 817 Jan 35

We describe the clinical presentation, course, and treatment response of a 14-year-old boy with catatonic stupor. This patient, with a preexisting diagnosis of autism, displayed mutism, akinesia, and an extreme level of rigidity, waxy flexibility, posturing, including the psychological pillow, facial grimacing, and other involuntary movements of his upper extremities. In addition he had symptoms suggestive of a depressive disorder as well as some non-specific psychotic symptoms. Intravenous injection of sodium amytal failed to resolve any motor symptoms, although he showed a good response to the zolpidem test. A course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) caused dramatic and sustained relief of catatonic stupor without a change in the symptoms of autism. The presentation of catatonia in autism and the use of ECT in children are discussed, and the available literature reviewed. This is the first description of the use of ECT in the treatment of catatonia coinciding with autism and we confirm its efficacy.
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PMID:Catatonia, autism, and ECT. 1061 84

We present data on the intellectual, language and executive functions of 26 children who had undergone surgery for the removal of cerebellar hemisphere or vermal tumours. The children with right cerebellar tumours presented with disturbances of auditory sequential memory and language processing, whereas those with left cerebellar tumours showed deficits on tests of spatial and visual sequential memory. The vermal lesions led to two profiles: (i) post-surgical mutism, which evolved into speech disorders or language disturbances similar to agrammatism; and (ii) behavioural disturbances ranging from irritability to behaviours reminiscent of autism. These data are consistent with the recently acknowledged role of the cerebellum as a modulator of mental and social functions, and suggest that this role is operative early in childhood.
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PMID:The cerebellum contributes to higher functions during development: evidence from a series of children surgically treated for posterior fossa tumours. 1077 49

The paper presents current views concerning childhood autism. The authors present the concepts of etiology of this disorder, emphasizing the role of negative psychical stimuli in early childhood and the role of mother's contact with the child. Organic factors, including genetic background, developmental abnormalities of the nervous system, teratogenic factors and perinatal traumas are also taken into consideration. The role of metabolic factors and enterohormones, particularly those belonging to the secretin group and their effect on the function of the gastrointestinal tract and central nervous system is emphasized. We discuss signs which may be indicative of first symptoms of autism in different age groups. A typical symptom of autism is no development of speech, observed from infancy, taking the form of complete mutism at later stages. It has been emphasized that most pathologic symptoms result from altered perception of external stimuli, which arouse fear and anxiety. Autistic patients may suffer from gastrointestinal tract disturbances such as abdominal pains and diarrhea. Methods used hitherto in the therapy of childhood autism, mainly by psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as some attempts of pharmacological treatment, are presented. The structure and function of secretin, as well as its effects on the motor and secretory function of the stomach and the exocrine function of the pancreas are discussed. The role of secretin in diagnostic tests, among others in the diagnosis of gastrinoma, is emphasized. We also present the history of the application of secretin in the therapy of childhood autism.
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PMID:Use of secretin in the treatment of childhood autism. 1178 69

Social anxiety disorder is well suited to the spectrum concept because it has trait-like qualities of early onset, chronicity, and no empirically derived threshold that demarcates normal from clinically significant trait social anxiety. Social anxiety disorder has been shown to respond to relatively specific pharmacologic and cognitive-behavioral therapies, which makes identification of other conditions that may lie on the social anxiety disorder spectrum important because of possible treatment implications. Biologic markers associated with social anxiety disorder also may be shared by similar but nonidentical traits, such as behavioral inhibition and detachment. Clarification of the trait spectrums associated with specific biologic systems offers an opportunity for improving the understanding of the origin of these conditions. Strong evidence exists that at least some forms of shyness, avoidant personality disorder, and selective mutism lie on a social anxiety disorder spectrum. For several other disorders that share a prominent focus on social comparison, significant subgroups of patients seem to have features of social anxiety disorder. These disorders include major depression (especially the atypical subtype), body dysmorphic disorder, and eating disorders. Several other disorders marked by social dysfunction or inhibition, including substance use disorders (especially alcoholism), paranoid disorder, bipolar disorder, autism, and Asperger's disorder, also may show some overlap with social anxiety disorder features (e.g., social anxiety as a cause or complication of substance abuse, social avoidance in paranoid disorder, social disinhibiton in bipolar disorder, and social communication deficits in autism and Asperger's disorder). Social anxiety disorder also is associated with other anxiety disorders in general and other phobias in particular. In respect to traits, a growing body of evidence links behavioral inhibition to the unfamiliar to a social anxiety disorder spectrum with some specificity. Biologic measures of dopamine system hypoactivity have been linked to social anxiety disorder, trait detachment, and general deficits in reward and incentive function. It remains to be clarified, however, whether this brain system function is best characterized by a social anxiety disorder spectrum or some variant that incorporates social reward deficits or social avoidance behavior. Social anxiety disorder, shyness, and behavioral inhibition all seem to have a genetic component, but more research is needed to attempt to identify a more specifically heritable temperament associated with these conditions. Finally, the emergent concept of a social anxiety spectrum needs maturation. Although the notion of a single social anxiety disorder spectrum currently has some clinical use, the authors believe that exclusive focus on the notion of a single continuum with two extremes--from social disinhibition in mania to the most severe form of social anxiety, avoidant personality disorder--is premature and limiting in respect to etiologic research. An alternative approach is to conceptualize multiple, probably overlapping spectra in this area of social psychopathology. Individual dimensions might be based on various core phenomenologic, cognitive, or biologic characteristics. A bottom-up biologic approach holds promise for identifying spectra with a common etiology that might respond to specific treatments. Taking a pluralistic view of the concept of spectrum at this stage may help accelerate our understanding of social anxiety and related disorders.
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PMID:The social anxiety spectrum. 1246 59


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