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

Information was collected on the social networks of 500 adults with mental retardation receiving different types of residential supports. Results indicated that (a) the reported median size of participants' social networks (excluding staff) was 2 people; (b) 83% of participants were reported to have a staff member; 72%, a member of their family; 54%, another person with mental retardation; and 30%, a person who did not fit into any of these categories in their social network; (c) variation in the size and composition of participants' social networks was associated with a range of variables, including the personal characteristics of residents (age, autism, ability, and challenging behavior), the type of previous and current accommodation, staffing ratios, institutional climate, and the implementation of "active support."
Ment Retard 2001 Jun
PMID:Social networks of people with mental retardation in residential settings. 1141 99

Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the pathogenesis of a wide variety of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, mental retardation, and schizophrenia. Some heritable disorders approach 100% penetrance; nonetheless, even in these disorders, subtle aspects of clinical disease expression may be influenced by the environment. In other disorders with genetic influences, exogenous factors, and the timepoint(s) during nervous system development at which they are introduced, modulate expression of disease. Elucidation of the mechanisms guiding this intricate interplay between host response genes, environmental agents, and the neurodevelopmental context within which these interactions occur, is necessary to understand the continuum of clinical outcomes. This chapter will review the evidence that infectious and immune factors may contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders, describe an animal model of neurodevelopmental disorders based upon viral infection, identify processes by which neural circuitry may be compromised, and outline areas for future research.
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2001
PMID:Infectious and immune factors in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders: epidemiology, hypotheses, and animal models. 1155 36

Self-efficacy has been identified in the general parenting literature as an important variable affecting parent outcomes. In the present study, 26 mothers and 20 fathers of children with autism reported on their self-efficacy, anxiety, and depression. Teachers rated the behavior problems of the children. Regression analyses showed that self-efficacy mediated the effect of child behavior problems on mothers' anxiety and depression, but there was no evidence that it functioned as a mediator for fathers. However, there was evidence that self-efficacy moderated the effect of child behavior problems on fathers' anxiety. No evidence for the moderating effect of self-efficacy was apparent for mothers. Methodological issues and the theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Am J Ment Retard 2002 May
PMID:Behavior problems of children with autism, parental self-efficacy, and mental health. 1196 35

Five children with autism with a history of failing to acquire conditional discriminations learned to discriminate objects in response to spoken names or to match amounts to numbers with a combined blocking procedure. The procedure for teaching object discriminations involved (a) presenting the same spoken word until 10 consecutive correct responses occurred and (b) keeping the left-right location of the objects on the table constant. After mastery, the requirement for changing the spoken word was gradually reduced. Finally, the spoken words were presented randomly. In the final stage, the objects were located randomly. The procedure to teach number matching was similar. All children learned these discriminations with few errors. This procedure may be beneficial in teaching conditional discriminations to children with learning difficulties.
Am J Ment Retard 2002 Jul
PMID:Multicomponent procedure to teach conditional discriminations to children with autism. 1206 48

Although MECP2 was initially identified as the causative gene in classic Rett syndrome (RTT), the gene has now been implicated in several phenotypes that extend well beyond the clinically defined disorder. MECP2 mutations have been found in people with various disorders, including neonatal onset encephalopathy, X-linked recessive mental retardation (MRX), classic and atypical RTT, autism, and Angelman syndrome, as well as mildly affected females and normal carrier females. To make matters more complex, in approximately 20% of classic sporadic RTT cases and more than 50% of affected sister pairs, no mutation in MECP2 has been found. X-chromosome inactivation patterns can clearly affect the phenotypic expression in females, while the effect of the type and position of the mutation is more apparent in the broader phenotype than in RTT. Both males and females are at risk, although an excess of paternally derived mutations are found in most cases of classic RTT. Thus, because of the range of disparate phenotypes, the gene may account for a relatively large portion of mental retardation in the population.
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2002
PMID:The phenotypic consequences of MECP2 mutations extend beyond Rett syndrome. 1211 34

For decades after Kanner's original paper on the subject was published in 1943, autism was generally considered to be a rare condition with a prevalence of around 2-4 per 10,000 children. Then, studies carried out in the late 1990s and the present century reported annual rises in incidence of autism in pre-school children, based on age of diagnosis, and increases in the age-specific prevalence rates in children. Prevalence rates of up to 60 per 10,000 for autism and even more for the whole autistic spectrum were reported. Reasons for these increases are discussed. They include changes in diagnostic criteria, development of the concept of the wide autistic spectrum, different methods used in studies, growing awareness and knowledge among parents and professional workers and the development of specialist services, as well as the possibility of a true increase in numbers. Various environmental causes for a genuine rise in incidence have been suggested, including the triple vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR]. Not one of the possible environmental causes, including MMR, has been confirmed by independent scientific investigation, whereas there is strong evidence that complex genetic factors play a major role in etiology. The evidence suggests that the majority, if not all, of the reported rise in incidence and prevalence is due to changes in diagnostic criteria and increasing awareness and recognition of autistic spectrum disorders. Whether there is also a genuine rise in incidence remains an open question.
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2002
PMID:The epidemiology of autistic spectrum disorders: is the prevalence rising? 1221 59

Despite considerable interest in Rett syndrome, there have been few studies of associated behavioral and emotional problems. In the present study, 143 girls with Rett syndrome were compared on the Developmental Behavior Checklist with 85 girls with severe to profound mental retardation of mixed etiologies. After controlling for the effects of physical disabilities, we found that the girls with Rett syndrome presented more "autistic-relating" and fewer antisocial behaviors. A subsample of children with autism was also compared to the girls with Rett syndrome on autistic-relating behaviors, revealing that the Rett syndrome group did not present with classic autistic behavioral features The implications of these results for the identification of a Rett syndrome behavioral phenotype are discussed.
Am J Ment Retard 2003 Jan
PMID:Towards a behavioral phenotype for Rett syndrome. 1247 62

Advances in understanding autism and other developmental neuropsychiatric disorders will come from an integration of various research strategies including phenomenologic, functional neuroimaging, and pharmacologic methods, as well as epidemiologic approaches aimed at identifying genetic and environmental risk factors. The highly heritable nature of autism makes it scientifically valuable to involve parents and siblings as research participants. However, many studies on autism pose ethical challenges because they do not offer the prospect of direct benefit to subjects. In this article, we present an in-depth ethical analysis of current nontherapeutic research strategies that are common in autism research. The ethical analysis applies a proposed ethical framework for evaluating clinical research focusing on seven ethical requirements: (1) social or scientific value, (2) scientific validity, (3) fair subject selection, (4) favorable risk-benefit ratio, (5) independent review, (6) informed consent, and (7) respect for potential and enrolled research participants.
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2003
PMID:Ethical aspects of research into the etiology of autism. 1258 38

Previous researchers have reported autistic features in children with fragile X syndrome. We compared 21 children with pervasive developmental disorders (autism group) to 15 with fragile X syndrome on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and the Reiss Scales for Children's Dual Diagnosis. The 7 children (47%) with fragile X who scored above the Childhood Autism Rating Scale cut-off (fragile X-autism group) were more impaired than the remaining children (fragile X-no autism) on Childhood Autism Rating Scale subscales related to emotion, visual and listening responses, and communication. The autism group's Reiss scores were higher than fragile X-no autism group, but not fragile X-autism group. Although the Childhood Autism Rating Scale identified almost 50% of children with fragile X as having autism, qualitative differences may exist in specific autistic-like behaviors between children with autism and children with fragile X.
Am J Ment Retard 2003 Sep
PMID:Behavioral relationship between autism and fragile x syndrome. 1290 7

Autism is a behaviorally defined disorder characterized by a broad constellation of symptoms. Numerous studies directed to the biological substrate demonstrate clear effects of neurodevelopmental differences that will likely point to the etiology, course, and long-term outcomes of the disorder. Consistently replicated research on the neural underpinnings of autism is reviewed. In general, results suggest several main conclusions: First, autism is a heterogeneous disorder and is likely to have multiple possible etiologies; second, structural brain studies have indicated a variety of diffuse anatomical differences, reflective of an early developmental change in the growth or pruning of neural tissue, rather than localized lesions; similarly, neurochemical studies suggest early, neuromodulatory discrepancies rather than gross or localized abnormalities; and finally, there are a number of limitations on studies of brain activity that to date preclude definitive answers to questions of how the brain functions differently in autism. The large number of active research programs investigating the cognitive neuroscience of autism spectrum disorders, in combination with the exciting development of new methodologies and tools in this area, indicates the drama and excitement of work in this area.
Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2003
PMID:A systems neuroscience approach to autism: biological, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. 1295


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