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

To learn about the lives of young adults with ASD, families with children born 1974-1984, diagnosed as preschoolers and followed into adolescence were contacted by mail. Of 76 eligible, 48 (63%) participated in a telephone interview. Global outcome scores were assigned based on work, friendships and independence. At mean age 24, half had good to fair outcome and 46% poor. Co-morbid conditions, obesity and medication use were common. Families noted unmet needs particularly in social areas. Multilinear regression indicated a combination of IQ and CARS score at age 11 predicted outcome. Earlier studies reported more adults with ASD who had poor to very poor outcomes, however current young people had more opportunities, and thus better results were expected.
J Autism Dev Disord 2008 Apr
PMID:Young adult outcome of autism spectrum disorders. 1776 27

The Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) was developed to detect and monitor early signs of autism as they emerge in high-risk infants (all with an older sibling with an autistic spectrum disorder). Here we describe the scale and its development, and provide preliminary data on its reliability. Inter-rater reliability both for total scores and total number of endorsed items is good to excellent at 6, 12 and 18 months; reliability is more modest for individual items, particularly in 6-month-olds. Test-retest reliability of the AOSI at 12 months of age is within acceptable limits. Evidence that the AOSI provides reliable data is the first critical step towards evaluating its efficacy in distinguishing high-risk infants who develop ASD.
J Autism Dev Disord 2008 Apr
PMID:The Autism Observation Scale for Infants: scale development and reliability data. 1787 80

Despite longstanding clinical experience of unusual feeding difficulties in children with autism, there is no published literature describing their association with early onset FTT. This paper examines literature that may link feeding problems and abnormal growth with developmental and psychiatric conditions and describes seven cases of children with autism, who showed growth failure caused by severe feeding problems starting in the first year of life. Inadequacies in existing classifications systems are highlighted. The presence of severe or atypical feeding problems and FTT in infancy should alert professionals to possible underlying ASD. The aetiology of feeding disorders in autism appears to involve an unusually complex interactional model with biological vulnerabilities due to dysfunction in sensory, cognitive and emotional response interacting with dysfunctional attachment and learnt behaviours to produce a severe and intractable problem. Effective treatment therefore requires a novel multifaceted approach that can address each of these areas.
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PMID:Childhood autism, feeding problems and failure to thrive in early infancy. Seven case studies. 1787 99

This study examined the relationship between everyday repetitive behavior (primary symptoms of autism) and performance on neuropsychological tests of executive function and central coherence (secondary symptoms). It was hypothesized that the frequency and intensity of repetitive behavior would be positively correlated with laboratory measures of cognitive rigidity and weak central coherence. Participants included 19 individuals (ages 10-19) with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD group) and 18 age- and IQ-matched typically developing controls (TD group). There was partial support in the ASD group for the link between repetitive behavior and executive performance (the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task). There was no support for a link between repetitive behavior and measures of central coherence (a Gestalt Closure test and the Embedded Figures Test). Further research on repetitive behaviors in autism may benefit from a focus on narrow behavioral and cognitive constructs rather than general categories.
Autism 2007 Sep
PMID:The relationship between executive functioning, central coherence, and repetitive behaviors in the high-functioning autism spectrum. 1794 57

Psychologists interviewed direct-care staff using a battery of assessment measures including the autism spectrum disorders-diagnosis for intellectually disabled adults (ASD-DA), the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II), the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Individuals with Severe Retardation (MESSIER), the Socialization domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), and a checklist containing criteria for autism and PDD-NOS from the DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10. Three hundred and seven intellectually disabled (ID) adolescents and adults ranging in age from 16 to 88 were assessed. Participants were diagnosed with either ID and ASD (autism or PDD-NOS; n=156) or ID and no Axis I diagnosis (n=151). A modification of the multitrait-multimethod approach was used to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of the ASD-DA. The scale proved to have robust convergent validity when correlated with the DSM-IV-TR/ICD-10 checklist, MESSIER, and Socialization domain of the VABS. Additionally, discriminant validity was demonstrated by comparing the ASD-DA to items from the DASH-II (measure of general psychopathology). The implications of these data are discussed.
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PMID:The validity of the autism spectrum disorders-diagnosis for intellectually disabled adults (ASD-DA). 1798 35

The purpose of the present study was to determine which behavioral and physical phenotypes would be most likely to divide the ASD population into discrete subgroups. The taxometric methods of Maximum Covariance (MAXCOV) and Minus Mean Below A Cut (MAMBAC) were employed to test for categorical versus continuous variation of each phenotype across the ASD population. Data was retrieved from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange and the University of Missouri Autism Database. The results of our analyses support subgrouping subjects based on variation in social interaction/communication, intelligence, and essential/complex phenotype; in contrast, subjects varied continuously in insistence on sameness, repetitive sensory motor actions, language acquisition, and, tentatively, adaptive functioning. Stratifying ASD samples based on taxometric results should increase power in gene-finding studies and aid in treatment efficacy research.
J Autism Dev Disord 2008 May
PMID:Defining autism subgroups: a taxometric solution. 1798 24

Autism is a profound disorder of neurodevelopment with poorly understood biological origins. A potential role for maternal autoantibodies in the etiology of some cases of autism has been proposed in previous studies. To investigate this hypothesis, maternal plasma antibodies against human fetal and adult brain proteins were analyzed by western blot in 61 mothers of children with autistic disorder and 102 controls matched for maternal age and birth year (62 mothers of typically developing children (TD) and 40 mothers of children with non-ASD developmental delays (DD)). We observed reactivity to two protein bands at approximately 73 and 37kDa in plasma from 7 of 61 (11.5%) mothers of children with autism (AU) against fetal but not adult brain, which was not noted in either control group (TD; 0/62 p=0.0061 and DD; 0/40 p=0.0401). Further, the presence of reactivity to these two bands was associated with parent report of behavioral regression in AU children when compared to the TD (p=0.0019) and DD (0.0089) groups. Individual reactivity to the 37kDa band was observed significantly more often in the AU population compared with TD (p=0.0086) and DD (p=0.002) mothers, yielding a 5.69-fold odds ratio (95% confidence interval 2.09-15.51) associated with this band. The presence of these antibodies in the plasma of some mothers of children with autism, as well as the differential findings between mothers of children with early onset and regressive autism may suggest an association between the transfer of IgG autoantibodies during early neurodevelopment and the risk of developing of autism in some children.
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PMID:Autism: maternally derived antibodies specific for fetal brain proteins. 1807 98

Parent involvement is widely acknowledged to be a critical ;best practice' in the education of young children with ASD. Despite its importance, no studies to date have systematically examined the relative influence of child, family, and school factors on the extent to which parents participate in the education of their children with ASD. In the present study, questionnaire and interview data collected from the mothers and teachers of 95 children receiving public school services for ASD were used to address this issue. Descriptively, wide variation was found in both type and intensity of mothers' educational involvement. Regression analyses showed involvement, both at school and at home, to be heavily influenced by the extent to which school staff actively encouraged, assisted, and provided opportunities for parent involvement. In addition, severity of child behavior problems was also found to exert a uniformly negative effect on intensity of mothers' educational involvement, while the influence of family resources and demand variables varied, depending on whether involvement occurred at school or at home. Implications of these findings for future research and for the support of parents seeking to participate in the learning and development of their children with ASD are discussed.
Autism 2008 Jan
PMID:Maternal involvement in the education of young children with autism spectrum disorders. 1817 96

Autism is a genetically complex neurodevelopmental syndrome in which language deficits are a core feature. We describe results from two complimentary approaches used to identify risk variants on chromosome 7 that likely contribute to the etiology of autism. A two-stage association study tested 2758 SNPs across a 10 Mb 7q35 language-related autism QTL in AGRE (Autism Genetic Resource Exchange) trios and found significant association with Contactin Associated Protein-Like 2 (CNTNAP2), a strong a priori candidate. Male-only containing families were identified as primarily responsible for this association signal, consistent with the strong male affection bias in ASD and other language-based disorders. Gene-expression analyses in developing human brain further identified CNTNAP2 as enriched in circuits important for language development. Together, these results provide convergent evidence for involvement of CNTNAP2, a Neurexin family member, in autism, and demonstrate a connection between genetic risk for autism and specific brain structures.
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PMID:Linkage, association, and gene-expression analyses identify CNTNAP2 as an autism-susceptibility gene. 1817 79

Autism together with Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified form a spectrum of conditions (autism spectrum disorders or ASD) that is characterized by disturbances in social behavior, impaired communication and the presence of stereotyped behaviors or circumscribed interests. Recent estimates indicate a prevalence of ASD of 1 per 150 (Kuehn, 2007). The cause(s) of most cases of ASD are unknown but there is an emerging consensus that ASD have multiple etiologies. One proposed cause of ASD is exposure of the fetal brain to maternal autoantibodies during pregnancy [Dalton, P., Deacon, R., Blamire, A., Pike, M., McKinlay, I., Stein, J., Styles, P., Vincent, A., 2003. Maternal neuronal antibodies associated with autism and a language disorder. Ann. Neurol. 53, 533-537]. To provide evidence for this hypothesis, four rhesus monkeys were exposed prenatally to human IgG collected from mothers of multiple children diagnosed with ASD. Four control rhesus monkeys were exposed to human IgG collected from mothers of multiple typically developing children. Five additional monkeys were untreated controls. Monkeys were observed in a variety of behavioral paradigms involving unique social situations. Behaviors were scored by trained observers and overall activity was monitored with actimeters. Rhesus monkeys gestationally exposed to IgG class antibodies from mothers of children with ASD consistently demonstrated increased whole-body stereotypies across multiple testing paradigms. These monkeys were also hyperactive compared to controls. Treatment with IgG purified from mothers of typically developing children did not induce stereotypical or hyperactive behaviors. These findings support the potential for an autoimmune etiology in a subgroup of patients with neurodevelopmental disorders. This research raises the prospect of prenatal evaluation for neurodevelopmental risk factors and the potential for preventative therapeutics.
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PMID:Stereotypies and hyperactivity in rhesus monkeys exposed to IgG from mothers of children with autism. 1842 Mar 77


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