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

The clinical and biochemical status of thyroid function of patients with an autistic syndrome was investigated. The study consisted of 13 patients between the ages of 7 and 21 years. There was no clinical evidence for hypothyroidism in any patient, and T3, T4, and TSH concentrations were within the normal range. Two patients who had retarded bone ages were treated with triiodothyronine for 6 months. Hyperthyroidism developed when T3 levels exceeded physiologic concentrations in these patients. The concept that the clinical response to triiodothyronine in autistic patients results from correction of thyroid dysfunction is not supported by these findings.
J Autism Child Schizophr 1978 Dec
PMID:Triiodothyronine (T3) concentration and therapy in autistic children. 21 86

The cause of autism is unknown. Recently, it has been suggested that it involves metabolic disorders of serotonin and/or dopamine. On the other hand, there is a close relationship between hormone secretion and monoamines. The aim of this study was to analyze the secretion of GH, PRL, TSH, cortisol, LH and FSH. The subjects were 30 children with autism, 25 males and 5 females, aged from 1 10/12 to 9 10/12 years. Their IQs (DQs) ranged from 34 to 123. Pituitary hormone secretion was measured during provocation with insulin (0.1 unit/kg), TRH (10 micrograms/kg) and/or LH-RH (100 micrograms/m2) in 26 of 30 cases. Control subjects included 16 age-matched children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and 18 age-matched children with mental retardation (MR) without autistic and organic central nervous diseases. The 24-hour secretion rhythm of GH, PRL and cortisol for 14 cases with autism and of LH and FSH for 9 cases was also investigated. In insulin provocation test, the peak values of GH and delta GH (peak GH level minus baseline GH level) in ADD were significantly higher than those in MR (p less than 0.05). In TRH provocation test, the peak values of TSH and delta TSH in autism were significantly lower than those in MR. Five cases of autistic children revealed borderline responses for TSH, while the only one each of ADDs and MRs revealed borderline responses for TSH. In a study of the 24-hour hormone secretion rhythm, eleven of the 14 autistic children showed an abnormal secretion rhythm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Neuroendocrinologic studies on autism]. 271 59

Hypothalamo-pituitary functions were examined in thirteen children with behavioral disorders (six with hyperkinesia, four with autism, two with tic and one with schizophrenia) before and during treatment with pimozide, an antidopaminergic drug. The mean (+/- S.E.M.) basal serum PRL level (24.5 +/- 4.2 ng/ml) during pimozide treatment was significantly higher than that (12.4 +/- 3.2 ng/ml) before treatment. Hyperresponse of PRL to TSH releasing hormone (TRH) was observed in five (three with hyperkinesia, one with tic and one with autism) of the thirteen patients before treatment and in seven (four with hyperkinesia, two with autism and one with tic) during treatment. Mean TSH response during treatment was not significantly different from that before treatment. However, three of the four autistic children showed hyperresponse of TSH to TRH before treatment, whereas only one also showed a hyperresponse during treatment. The pimozide treatment had no demonstrable influence on GH or cortisol secretion in response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia, or on serum T4 and T3 levels.
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PMID:Influence of pimozide on hypothalamo-pituitary function in children with behavioral disorders. 642 90

An abnormal circadian pattern of melatonin was found in a group of young adults with an extreme autism syndrome. Although not out of phase, the serum melatonin levels differed from normal in amplitude and mesor. Marginal changes in diurnal rhythms of serum TSH and possibly prolactin were also recorded. Subjects with seizures tended to have an abnormal pattern of melatonin correlated with EEG changes. In others, a parallel was evidenced between thyroid function and impairment in verbal communication. There appears to be a tendency for various types of neuroendocrinological abnormalities in autistics, and melatonin, as well as possibly TSH and perhaps prolactin, could serve as biochemical variables of the biological parameters of the disease.
J Autism Dev Disord 1995 Dec
PMID:Brief report: circadian melatonin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, prolactin, and cortisol levels in serum of young adults with autism. 872 32

The Task Support Hypothesis (TSH, Bowler et al. Neuropsychologia 35:65-70 1997) states that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show better memory when test procedures provide support for retrieval. The present study aimed to see whether this principle also applied at encoding. Twenty participants with high-functioning ASD and 20 matched comparison participants studied arrays of 112 words over four trials. Words were arranged either under hierarchically embedded category headings (e.g. Instruments-String-Plucked-Violin) or randomly. Both groups showed similar overall recall and better recall for the hierarchically organised words. However, the ASD participants made less use of information about relations between words and more use of item-specific information in their recall, confirming earlier reports of relational difficulties in this population.
J Autism Dev Disord 2009 Apr
PMID:Free recall learning of hierarchically organised lists by adults with Asperger's syndrome: additional evidence for diminished relational processing. 1902 50

According to the Task Support Hypothesis (TSH; Bowler et al. in Neuropsychologia 35:65-70, 1997) individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perform more similarly to their typically developing peers on learning and memory tasks when provided with external support at retrieval. We administered the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version to 15 high-functioning youths with ASD and 15 matched comparison participants. Although ASD and comparison participants had comparable levels of overall performance, the ASD group, but not the comparison group, improved significantly from free to cued recall, providing support for the TSH. These results indicate that verbal memory performance in youths with ASD is relatively intact, but may be facilitated by external supports.
J Autism Dev Disord 2011 Apr
PMID:Brief report: memory performance on the California verbal learning test - children's version in Autism spectrum disorder. 2065 87