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

Autism affects one hundred thousand individuals in France This syndrome was first described as the earliest form of schizophrenic psychosis. It is now considered to be a biologically based pervasive neurodevelopmental, disorder affecting, from the first days of life, social communication and adjustment to the environment. Advances in the understanding of its clinical neurofunctional and genetic aspects have progressively modified conceptions and practices for diagnosis, exploration and therapeutics. This live-long complex handicap presents major challenges.
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PMID:[Autism: current issues, history and future perspectives]. 1971 85

A century ago, Kraepelin and Bleuler observed that schizophrenia is often antedated by "premorbid" abnormalities. In this study we explore how the childhood neurodevelopmental problems found in patients with schizophrenia relate to the current concept of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Forty-six young adult individuals with clinical diagnoses of schizophrenic psychotic disorders were assessed. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID-I) was used in face-to-face psychiatric examination of each individual. In 32 of the 46 cases (70%), collateral information was provided by one or both parents. The Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders - eleventh version (DISCO-11) was used when interviewing these relatives. This instrument covers, in considerable depth, childhood development, adaptive functioning, and symptoms of ASD - current and lifetime. There is a strict algorithm for ASD diagnosis. About half of the cases with schizophrenic psychosis had ASD according to the results of the parental interview. The rate of ASD was strikingly high (60%) in the group with a SCID-I diagnosis of schizophrenia paranoid type. The findings underscore the need to revisit the DSM's "either or" stance between ASD and schizophrenia.
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PMID:Is autism spectrum disorder common in schizophrenia? 2242 Oct 71

Social cognition impairments are well described in both autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger syndrome (AS), and in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, little is known about whether there are differences between the two groups of disorders regarding this ability. The aim of this study was to compare social cognition abilities in AS and schizophrenia. Fifty-three individuals (26 men, 27 women) with a clinical diagnosis of AS, 36 (22 men, 14 women) with a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenic psychosis, and 50 non-clinical controls (19 men, 31 women) participated in the study. Clinical diagnoses were confirmed either by Structured Clinical Interview on DSM-IV diagnosis or the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders. Verbal ability was assessed using the Vocabulary subtest of the WAIS-III. Two social cognition instruments were used: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Eyes Test) and the Animations Task. On the Eyes Test, patients with schizophrenia showed poorer results compared to non-clinical controls; however, no other group differences were seen. Both clinical groups scored significantly lower than the comparison group on the Animations Task. The AS group performed somewhat better than the schizophrenia group. Some differences were accounted for by gender effects. Implicit social cognition impairments appear to be at least as severe in schizophrenia as they are in AS. Possible gender differences have to be taken into account in future research on this topic.
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PMID:Social cognition impairments in Asperger syndrome and schizophrenia. 2326 67

A circumscribed association between copy number variations and the diagnosis of schizophrenia or autism but not bipolar disorder supports the notion of schizophrenia and autism principally representing a disturbed brain development. Data of multiply affected families show certain brain structural (e. g. hippocampal) changes to also be present in their first-grade relatives without leading to psychopathological abnormalities. It thus can be concluded that there exist regional fronto-temporal changes in schizophrenia due to genetically early determined primary vulnerability. The transition of this vulnerability into a prodrome to the point of the fully developed disease is triggered by relevant environmental factors. Hippocampal brain structural changes do not base on neuronal loss, for which reason the underlying mechanism might be a reduction of neuropil and thus a disturbance of synaptic processes or even regenerative mechanisms. Thus, disturbed regenerative mechanisms might be linked to the course of schizophrenic psychosis: the more pronounced the negative symptoms, the more evident the impaired synaptic or neuronal plasticity. Based on initial data we speculate the disturbed synaptic/plastic processes to result from an impaired epigenetic regulation. This could explain how relevant environmental factors (pregnancy and birth complications, early childhood abuse or cannabis abuse) via risk genes might lead to a destabilized neuronal network which in the end could trigger schizophrenia symptoms on the behavioral level.
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PMID:[Brain development before onset of the first psychotic episode and during outcome of schizophrenia]. 2369 90

There has been an increasing interest in possible connections between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia in the last decade. Neuropsychological comparison studies have, however, been few. The present study examined similarities and differences in intellectual and executive functioning between adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) and adults with schizophrenic psychosis (SP). A group with AS and a group with SP were assessed neuropsychologically with WAIS-III and D-KEFS. Similarities were found between groups, as displayed by an uneven cognitive profile, limitations in working memory, processing speed and some aspects of executive functioning. Full Scale IQ was higher in the AS group. These results add to the current research illuminating similarities and differences between ASD and schizophrenia on a cognitive level.
J Autism Dev Disord 2016 Jul
PMID:Asperger Syndrome and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Neuropsychological Study. 2693 60