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

Fifty infants and young preschool children seen in a pediatric developmental service and diagnosed as having "autism" all had evidence of organic disease of the brain and three fourths had mental deficiency of varying degrees. They did not differ in any respect from a comparison group of patients with central nervous system dysfunction unassociated with the symptom complex of autism. Both groups of patients had a high incidence of low birthweight, complications of pregnancy and the neonatal period, seizure disorders, and a variety of specific disease entities associated with developmental defects. Follow-up of 40 of the 45 survivors for a mean of five years showed that none of the patients had had treatment directed to their psychotic symptoms. However, three fourths had established social responses appropriate to their level of function; those who did not generally were over 3 years of age at the time of their first examination or had initial DQs of 35 or less. The degree of mental deficiency was as great or greater at follow-up than it was initially.
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PMID:Some etiologic and prognostic factors in early infantile autism and psychosis. 4 57

By keeping in mind that not a psychosis is schizophrenia, the primary care physician can often avoid misdiagnosis in behaviorally disturbed patients. Abnormal behavior may result from mood disorders, drug-induced psychosis and other organic disorders, personality disorders, delusional disorders, autism, or mental retardation. A long-term history is essential for correct diagnosis and treatment.
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PMID:Differential diagnosis of psychosis. A brief guide for the primary care physician. 292 77

The records of 144 patients of Child Psychiatry Units of Alsace (France), with childhood psychosis (CP) or pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) have been systematically screened for previous or associated pathological events. Half of the children studied have been or are still affected by severe somatic disorders, but none of the diagnostic subcategories (referring to DSM III or CFTMEA) appeared significantly more frequently affected. In our population, the severity of organic disorders was positively correlated with: the age of the mother: more severe cases were reported when the mother was younger than 20 or older than 40 at the moment of childbirth; pathological events during pregnancy; early mother-child separation during the first year of life. The most frequent associated disorders however (neonatal pathology 45% of the cases, epilepsy 17% of the cases, neurological or neurosensorial pathology 15% of the cases) were associated neither with a specific diagnostic nor with a clinical and social specific pattern. The only statistically significant correlation was found between neurological pathology and a relatively low level of cognitive and social functioning. All these results were confirmed by multivariate statistical analysis. A main component analysis integrating all quantified data concerning organic pathology was performed: it emphasizes the independence of the different pathological events reported. The factorial analysis including the clinical, diagnostical and somatic event-related data failed to show any statistical profile associating functional features of the children with any particular previous or existing somatic disorders. Our results suggest that a history of organic pathological events is frequent not only in autistic disorders but in any kind of PDD or early CP - associated with moderate to severe mental retardation, in most cases of our study. However, this does not demonstrate that this type of pathological events constitute the direct and unique cause of PDD and CP: the concept of the aetiology of these severe diseases must take account of other factors - such as relational disruption -, also frequently seen in these children.
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PMID:[Childhood psychoses and organic pathology: results of a study of 144 cases]. 758 70

It is now 50 years since Leo Kanner first described autism as a distinctive pattern of symptoms in some children with severe developmental problems. Since then the assessment and diagnosis of children with pervasive disorders of development has been refined and much is known about the phenomenology and epidemiology. Autism is a biological disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) of unknown cause. It is associated with a number of organic disorders such as epilepsy and has comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders such as tic disorder. Cognitive abnormalities in social interactions, affect and language are present but there is still debate regarding which of these, if any, is the primary cognitive deficit. Special education and behavioral management has led to modest but important developmental improvement in many children with autism. Autism remains a life-long condition but patterns of symptoms change and skills develop from childhood into adult life.
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PMID:Autism: fifty years on from Kanner. 819 40

This paper reviews the concept and recent studies on childhood and adolescent psychoses with special reference to schizophrenia. After a short historical introduction, the definition, classification, and epidemiology of child- and adolescent-onset psychoses are described, pointing out that some early-onset psychotic states seem to be related to schizophrenia (such as infantile catatonia) and others not (such as desintegrative disorder). The frequency of childhood schizophrenia is less than 1 in 10,000 children, but there is a remarkable increase in frequency between 13 and 18 years of age. Currently, schizophrenia is diagnosed according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria. The differential diagnosis includes autism, desintegrative disorder, multiplex complex developmental disorder (MCDD) respectively multiple developmental impairment (MDI), affective psychoses, Asperger syndrome, drug-induced psychosis and psychotic states caused by organic disorders. With regard to etiology, there is strong evidence for the importance of genetic factors and for neurointegrative deficits preceding the onset of the disorder. Treatment is based upon a multimodal approach including antipsychotic medication (mainly by atypical neuroleptics), psychotherapeutic measures, family-oriented measures, and specific measures of rehabilitation applied in about 30% of the patients after completion of inpatient treatment. The long-term course of childhood- and adolescent-onset schizophrenia is worse than in adulthood schizophrenia, and the patients with manifestation of the disorder below the age of 14 have a very poor prognosis.
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PMID:Schizophrenia and related disorders in children and adolescents. 1635 6

Autistic disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder which starts before the age of 3. The clinic features of autism are variable; the autonomy degree, the speech quality, the mental retardation associated and specially the existence of an organic disease change its clinic expression. A good knowledge of the basic signs is important to put diagnosis. This work, propose to describe a clinic and a Para clinic profile of Tunisian population of children with autism. The study included 63 children referred to the child psychiatry department between January 1998 and September 2003 and diagnosed with autistic disorder according to DSMIV and ADI-R criteria. The population profile studied is drawn as following : The sex ratio was of 3/1, the average age was of 8 years+/-3 years. Parents were related in 39.3% of cases. On the clinical plan, 51.2% of children with autism studied did not have expressive speech. They presented a mental retardation associated in 60.8% of cases. Epilepsy was presented in 21 children out of 63. This profile links literature study except in 2 points: - The rate of relatives with autism (8.6%) is superior to the rate found in literature(3%). This result can be explained by the high rate of consanguinity in the Tunisian studied population (39.3%). - Importance of associated organic pathologies (mental retardation).
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PMID:[A clinic and a paraclinic study of Tunisian population of children with autism. About 63 cases]. 1728 76