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

It is suggested that damage by mild trauma, viruses or bone disease to the otic capsule or to the membranes between the cochlea and the middle ear is common, and involved in many syndromes of obscure etiology. The clinical perilymph fistula (PF) syndrome can consist of any combination of the following: tinnitus, deafness, phonophobia, vertigo, ataxia, otalgia, facial palsy, headache, diplopia, blackouts, psychological distress. The following testable hypotheses are proposed: otitis media is due to perilymph in the middle ear, with secondary changes resulting from infection or inflammation: otosclerosis results from a slow leak in the presence of enzymes promoting bone growth: Meniere's syndrome follows reduced perilymph support for the endolymphatic system: Bell's palsy results from a perilymph provoked oedema in the bony facial nerve canal: PFs may be responsible for progressive rubella deafness, and for some cases of migraine, epilepsy, anxiety neurosis and hysteria: psychiatric sequelae of the PF syndrome predominate in the post-concussional syndrome and infantile autism: organisms can pass from the throat into the spinal fluid, causing meningitis or encephalitis. The tinnitus and vertigo are caused by random labyrinthine fluid movements, the headache and diplopia by reduced spinal fluid pressure.
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PMID:Perilymph fistula: a cause of auditory, vestibular, neurological and psychiatric disorder. 78 62

The Hassles Scale (HS; Kanner, A.D., et al., J. Behav. Med. 4: 1-39, 1981) has aroused considerable debate. Its authors and some others report that it provides a superior way of operationalizing psychosocial stress and that it predicts health outcomes as well as or better than measures of major life events. Critics contend that the HS is confounded by an inability to separate the external, objective sources of stress from the internal, subjective reactions to it and that it measures, rather than predicts, psychological distress. In this article we argue that a careful distinction between the two major HS summary scores, Hassle Number and Hassle Intensity, will largely disentangle the confound. Results based on data collected from a sample of alcohol and substance abusers (N = 630) suggest that the number of external stressors and the strength of internal reactions to them can be separately assessed using the HS. Results indicate that these two components are independently as well as jointly associated with psychological distress.
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PMID:Unconfounding the Hassles Scale: external sources versus internal responses to stress. 317 93

Parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) are more likely to experience serious psychological distress than parents of children with other developmental disabilities. To examine the impact of a range of factors on psychological wellbeing, interviews were undertaken with 68 mothers of children with ASDs to explore aspects of social support, mental health status and satisfaction with services. Findings indicated that over half of mothers screened positive for significant psychological distress and that this was associated with low levels of family support and with bringing up a child with higher levels of challenging behaviour. Mothers were more likely to report lower levels of support if they were a lone parent, were living in poor housing, or were the mother of a boy with ASD. The study also investigated areas of useful support and areas of unmet need, the latter including care breaks and advice needs.
Autism 2004 Dec
PMID:Mothers supporting children with autistic spectrum disorders: social support, mental health status and satisfaction with services. 1555 59

The aim of this paper is to explore the stress and the psychological distress faced by parents of children living with different types of disability. Its main focus is on parents of children with autism. The first part describes the stress factors faced by parents of children with disabilities and the second, the particularities of the stress faced by parents of children with autism. The third part explores other types of stress factors, such as financial problems, marital discord or beak-up, single parenthood and lack of social support. In the forth part, we examine weather the services are well suited to provide for the needs of families, and, in the fifth part, we describe the major role played by intervention in the life of families of children with autism.
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PMID:[The impact of autism on the life of parents]. 1947 7

Parents of children with developmental disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), are at risk for high levels of distress. The factors contributing to this are unclear. This study investigated how child characteristics influence maternal parenting stress and psychological distress. Participants consisted of mothers and developmental-age matched preschool-aged children with ASD (N = 51) and developmental delay without autism (DD) ( N = 22). Evidence for higher levels of parenting stress and psychological distress was found in mothers in the ASD group compared to the DD group. Children's problem behavior was associated with increased parenting stress and psychological distress in mothers in the ASD and DD groups. This relationship was stronger in the DD group. Daily living skills were not related to parenting stress or psychological distress. Results suggest clinical services aiming to support parents should include a focus on reducing problem behaviors in children with developmental disabilities.
Autism 2009 Jul
PMID:Parenting stress and psychological functioning among mothers of preschool children with autism and developmental delay. 1953 67

We examined child behavior problems and maternal mental health in a British population-representative sample of 5 year-old children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), controlling for the presence of an intellectual disability (ID). Behavior problems were significantly higher in children with ASD with/out ID compared to typically developing children, but compared to children with ID only hyperactivity was significantly higher in children with ASD/ID. After controlling for ID and maternal mental health, the presence of ASD significantly increased the odds for hyperactivity, conduct problems and emotional symptoms. Negative maternal outcomes (serious mental illness, psychological distress, and physical health limitations) were not consistently elevated in ASD. The findings highlight the early age at which behavior problems emerge in ASD, and suggest that at this age , there may not be a clear disadvantage for maternal mental health associated with having a child with ASD in the family, over and above that conferred by child behavior problems.
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PMID:Behavior problems at 5 years of age and maternal mental health in autism and intellectual disability. 2171 Jan 36

Research that has assessed the psychophysiological consequences of caregiver stress in young and middle aged caregivers, that is, in populations not contending with age associated decline of the endocrine and immune systems, has been scarce and yielded inconsistent findings. To extend work in this area, this study assessed the psychosocial, endocrine and immune consequences of caregiver stress in a cross sectional sample of young and middle aged caregivers of children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared against parents of typically developing children. Caregivers (n=56) and parent controls (n=22) completed measures of psychological distress (perceived stress, anxiety/depression), social support and physical health complaints. To capture important indices of the diurnal cortisol pattern, cortisol was measured at waking, 30 min post waking, 1200 h and 2200 h on two consecutive weekdays. Venous blood was taken to assess systemic concentrations of proinflammatory biomarkers, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Caregivers scored markedly higher on all measures of psychological distress; scores on social support subscales, however, were significantly lower in this group. Diurnal patterns of cortisol secretion did not differentiate between the groups; however, caregivers displayed elevated systemic concentrations of the proinflammatory biomarker, CRP and reported more frequent episodes of physical ill health. The stress of caregiving exacts a significant psychophysiological toll, that is, even in the absence of HPA dysregulation, caregivers demonstrated elevated concentrations of proinflammatory biomarkers and, therefore, might be at greater risk for diseases fostered by disinhibition of the inflammatory response.
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PMID:The psychosocial, endocrine and immune consequences of caring for a child with autism or ADHD. 2188 67

Elevated psychological distress and concomitant dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been implicated as one pathway that links the stress of caregiving with adverse health outcomes. This study assessed whether perceived social support might mitigate the psychological, endocrine and health consequences of caregiver stress in parents of children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parental caregivers completed measures of psychological distress, perceived availability of social support and physical health complaints. To capture important parameters of the basal diurnal cortisol pattern, caregivers collected salivary cortisol at waking, 30 min post waking, 1200 h and 2200 h on two consecutive weekdays. Psychological distress and self reported physical health complaints were inversely related to scores on all support subscales: tangible, belonging, self esteem and appraisal. Results further revealed a significant, positive association between magnitude of the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and caregivers' self esteem. As a buffer between the stress of caregiving and adverse physical health outcomes, social support acts to reduce stress appraisals and mitigate disturbances of the HPA axis. Moving forward, intervention programmes might seek to increase caregivers' perceived availability of social resources.
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PMID:With a little help from my friends: psychological, endocrine and health corollaries of social support in parental caregivers of children with autism or ADHD. 2218 36

Raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has often been associated with higher levels of parenting stress and psychological distress, and a number of studies have examined the role of psychological processes as mediators of the impact of child problem behavior on parent mental health. The current study examined the relations among child problem behavior, parent mental health, psychological acceptance, and parent empowerment. Participants included 228 parents of children diagnosed with ASD, 6-21 years of age. As expected, psychological acceptance and empowerment were negatively related to the severity of parent mental health problems. When acceptance and empowerment were compared with each other through a test of multiple mediation, only psychological acceptance emerged as a significant partial mediator of the path between child problem behavior and parent mental health problems. As child problem behavior increased, parent psychological acceptance decreased, resulting in an increase in parent mental health problems. These findings suggest that for problems that are chronic and difficult to address, psychological acceptance may be an important factor in coping for parents of young people with ASD, in line with the growing literature on positive coping as compared with problem-focused coping.
Autism 2012 May
PMID:The impact of child problem behaviors of children with ASD on parent mental health: the mediating role of acceptance and empowerment. 2229 2

Parenting a child with autism may differentially affect mothers and fathers. Existing studies of mother-father differences often ignore the interdependence of data within families. We investigated gender differences within-families using multilevel linear modeling. Mothers and fathers of children with autism (161 couples) reported on their own well-being, and their child's functioning. Mothers reported higher levels of distress compared with fathers, and child behavior problems predicted psychological distress for both mothers and fathers. We found little evidence of child functioning variables affecting mothers and fathers differently. Gender differences in the impact of child autism on parents appear to be robust. More family systems research is required to fully understand these gender differences and the implications for family support.
J Autism Dev Disord 2013 Sep
PMID:Gender differences when parenting children with autism spectrum disorders: a multilevel modeling approach. 2330 20


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