1. Avcil S, Baykara B, Baydur H, Munir KM, Inal Emiroglu N. {{[The Validity and Reliability of the Social Communication Questionnaire- Turkish Form in Autistics aged 4-18 years]}}. {Turk Psikiyatri Derg};2015 (Spring);26(1):56-64.
OBJECTIVE: The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a valid and reliable 40- item scale used to assess of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs). The aim of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the SCQ-Turkish Form (SCQ-TF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 100 children and adolescents aged 4-18 years 50 were diagnosed as PDD and 50 were diagnosed with intellectual disability (ID) based on DSM-IV-TR criteria. The consistency, test-retest reliability, content validity, and discriminant validity of SCQ-TF for the groups in the study sample were evaluated. SCQ-TF was compared to the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Autism Behavioural Checklist (ABC), and Clinical Global Impression Severity of Illness (CGI-SI). The most appropriate SCQ-TF cut-off point was determined via ROC analysis. RESULTS: The 4-factor structure of SCQ-TF accounted for 43% of the observed total variance. Correlations between the Social Communication Questionnaire -Turkish Form and the other measures were significant. The Cronbach’s alpha value for the SCQ-TF total score was 0.80. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) varied between 0.87 and 0.96, and the cut-off point was 15. CONCLUSION: The findings show that SCQ-TF is valid and reliable for use in Turkey in those aged 4-18 years.
2. Brezis RS. {{Memory integration in the autobiographical narratives of individuals with autism}}. {Front Hum Neurosci};2015;9:76.
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3. Brezis RS, Weisner TS, Daley TC, Singhal N, Barua M, Chollera SP. {{Parenting a Child with Autism in India: Narratives Before and After a Parent-Child Intervention Program}}. {Cult Med Psychiatry};2015 (Mar 5)
In many low and middle income countries where autism-related resources are scarce, interventions must rely on family and parents. A 3-month Parent-Child Training Program (PCTP) at Action For Autism, New Delhi, India is aimed at empowering and educating parents, encouraging acceptance of their child, and decreasing parent stress. Forty couples were asked to describe their child with autism using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS), an open-ended narrative method, before and after the program. Parents described a wide range of child behaviors, primarily social and cognitive skills. While all families were of a relatively affluent strata compared to the general Indian population, there were nonetheless significant differences in parents’ narratives based on their income levels. Coming into the program, parents with relatively less income focused on their child’s immediate and material needs, while higher income parents discussed their parental roles and vision for society. After the PCTP, parents were more likely to reflect on their child beyond comparisons to ‘normality,’ and beyond the here-and-now. Mothers were more likely than fathers to reflect on themselves and their relationships with their child. Understanding parents’ experiences and narratives is essential for the evaluation of interventions such as the PCTP, as Indian parents are incorporated into a growing global network of ‘parents of children with autism.’
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4. Cascio MA. {{Rigid Therapies, Rigid Minds: Italian Professionals’ Perspectives on Autism Interventions}}. {Cult Med Psychiatry};2015 (Mar 6)
Many therapies, interventions, and programs seek to improve outcomes and quality of life for people diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions. This paper addresses Italian professionals’ perspectives on a variety of such interventions, including TEACCH, ABA, Defeat Autism Now!, and Doman-Delacato. Drawing on participant-observation and interviews collected in 2012-2013 in a northern region of Italy, it highlights the theme of « rigidity » that appears in professionals’ discourses about both the characteristics of people with autism and the potential risks of adhering too strictly to any particular treatment protocol. The co-occurrence of the theme of rigidity across different domains demonstrates a way in which diagnostic characteristics become metaphors for medical practice. This paper proposes that such discursive moves may help bridge the gap between people with autism and people who work with them because a key attribute of people with autism-thinking and/or acting rigidly-is also a potential pitfall for people without autism.
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5. Crowley B, Howe YJ, McDougle CJ. {{Topiramate for Weight Loss in Two Young Adult Women with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol};2015 (Mar 6)
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6. Davidson C, O’Hare A, Mactaggart F, Green J, Young D, Gillberg C, Minnis H. {{Social relationship difficulties in autism and reactive attachment disorder: Improving diagnostic validity through structured assessment}}. {Res Dev Disabil};2015 (Mar 6);40C:63-72.
BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) versus Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is a common diagnostic challenge for clinicians due to overlapping difficulties with social relationships. RAD is associated with neglect or maltreatment whereas ASD is not: accurate differential diagnosis is therefore critical. Very little research has investigated the relationship between the two, and it is unknown if standardised measures are able to discriminate between ASD and RAD. The current study aimed to address these issues. METHODS: Fifty eight children with ASD, and no history of maltreatment, were group matched on age with 67 children with RAD. Group profiles on multi-informant measures of RAD were investigated and group differences explored. Discriminant function analysis determined assessment features that best discriminated between the two groups. RESULTS: Although, according to parent report, children with ASD presented with significantly fewer indiscriminate friendliness behaviours compared to the RAD group (p<0.001), 36 children with ASD appeared to meet core RAD criteria. However, structured observation clearly demonstrated that features were indicative of ASD and not RAD for all but 1 of these 36 children. CONCLUSIONS: Children with RAD and children with ASD may demonstrate similar social relationship difficulties but there appears to be a difference in the social quality of the interactions between the groups. In most cases it was possible to differentiate between children with ASD and children with RAD via structured observation. Nevertheless, for a small proportion of children with ASD, particularly those whose difficulties may be more subtle, our current standardised measures, including structured observation, may not be effective in differentiating RAD from ASD.
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7. Elrod MG, Hood BS. {{Sleep Differences Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Typically Developing Peers: A Meta-Analysis}}. {J Dev Behav Pediatr};2015 (Feb 18)
OBJECTIVE:: Sleep problems such as difficulties in sleep initiation, nighttime awakening, and shortened sleep time are often subjectively reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, results of objective studies have been mixed. Our goal was to evaluate the existing data from objective measures using a systematic approach to identify and describe the differences in sleep parameters by comparing total sleep time (TST), sleep latency (SL), and sleep efficiency (SE) in children with ASD with those of typically developing (TD) peers. METHODS:: Studies that used objective measures such as actigraphy or polysomnography (PSG) to describe the sleep parameters of TST, SL, and SE in children with ASD compared with children with TD were identified. A meta-analysis was performed for the 10 studies that met inclusion criteria with evaluation of differences in means using random effects models. A total of 343 children with ASD and 221 children with TD were included. Assessments for sources of heterogeneity and publication bias were undertaken. RESULTS:: TST for children with ASD was on average 32.8 minutes less per day (95% confidence interval [CI]: 16.6-49.0 minutes) than their TD peers. Average SL was 10.9 minutes longer (95% CI: 6.7-15.0 minutes), and average SE was 1.9% less (95% CI: 0.7%-3.1%) than their TD peers. Notable heterogeneity was found within studies for TST, and mild heterogeneity was found for SE. Concurrent intellectual disability was a moderator of TST. Children with ASD and normal intelligence had a small and nonsignificant decrease in TST as compared with TD peers, whereas those with ASD and intellectual disability (ID) had a significant decrease in TST as compared with TD peers. The magnitude of the difference in mean SL and SE increased as compared with TD peers as age increased. Studies that used PSG and those that did not include children on medications were more likely to report mean decreases in SE. CONCLUSIONS:: Children with ASD have small but measurable objective differences in their sleep parameters that are consistent with subjective reporting. Children with ASD have shorter TST, longer SL periods, and decreased SE as compared with TD peers. Concurrent ID, medication use, method of data collection, and age of subjects significantly moderated these results. The decrease in TST in children with ASD and normal intelligence was not significant as compared with TD peers, suggesting that ID may help explain the shortened TST in children with ASD.
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8. Hamilton PJ, Shekar A, Belovich AN, Christianson NB, Campbell NG, Sutcliffe JS, Galli A, Matthies HJ, Erreger K. {{Zn(2+) reverses functional deficits in a de novo dopamine transporter variant associated with autism spectrum disorder}}. {Mol Autism};2015;6:8.
Our laboratory recently characterized a novel autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-associated de novo missense mutation in the human dopamine transporter (hDAT) gene SLC6A3 (hDAT T356M). This hDAT variant exhibits dysfunctional forward and reverse transport properties that may contribute to DA dysfunction in ASD. Here, we report that Zn(2+) reverses, at least in part, the functional deficits of ASD-associated hDAT variant T356M. These data suggest that the molecular mechanism targeted by Zn(2+) to restore partial function in hDAT T356M may be a novel therapeutic target to rescue functional deficits in hDAT variants associated with ASD.
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9. Sanders EJ, Irvin DW, Belardi K, McCune L, Boyd BA, Odom SL. {{The questions verbal children with autism spectrum disorder encounter in the inclusive preschool classroom}}. {Autism};2015 (Mar 6)
This study investigated questions adults asked to children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive pre-kindergarten classrooms, and whether child (e.g. autism severity) and setting (i.e. adult-to-child ratio) characteristics were related to questions asked during center-time. Videos of verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 42) were coded based on the following question categories adapted from the work of Massey et al.: management, low cognitive challenging, or cognitively challenging. Results indicated that management questions (mean = 19.97, standard deviation = 12.71) were asked more than less cognitively challenging questions (mean = 14.22, standard deviation = 8.98) and less cognitively challenging questions were asked more than cognitively challenging questions (mean = 10.00, standard deviation = 6.9). Children with higher language levels had a greater likelihood of receiving cognitively challenging questions (odds ratio = 1.025; p = 0.007). Cognitively challenging questions had a greater likelihood of being asked in classrooms with more adults relative to children (odds ratio = 1.176; p = 0.037). The findings present a first step in identifying the questions directed at preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive classrooms.
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10. Sarrett JC. {{« Maybe at Birth There was an Injury »: Drivers and Implications of Caretaker Explanatory Models of Autistic Characteristics in Kerala, India}}. {Cult Med Psychiatry};2015 (Mar 5)
Explanatory models (EMs) are the way people explain the presence and meaning of an illness or disability and are reliant on and reflective of culturally specific values of normalcy, disability, health, and illness. EMs about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are particularly revealing because there is no known cause, and so people can explain this disability in ways more appropriate for and useful to them. This article presents caretaker EMs about children with autistic characteristics in Kerala, India. I argue that the reliance on biological, but not genetic, causal models is reflective of the state’s high access to biomedical heath care. These EMs are used to deflect the stigma of ‘bad blood’ and reflect a nuanced relationship between stigma and biological EMs. Understanding how caretakers talk about ASD and related conditions is critical for anyone interested in engaging in crosscultural or international autism-related work.
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11. Schieve LA, Clayton HB, Durkin MS, Wingate MS, Drews-Botsch C. {{Comparison of Perinatal Risk Factors Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability (ID), and Co-occurring ASD and ID}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Mar 5)
While studies report associations between perinatal outcomes and both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID), there has been little study of ASD with versus without co-occurring ID. We compared perinatal risk factors among 7547 children in the 2006-2010 Autism and Developmental Disability Monitoring Network classified as having ASD + ID, ASD only, and ID only. Children in all three groups had higher rates of preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age, and low Apgar score than expected based on the US birth cohort adjusted for key socio-demographic factors. Associations with most factors, especially PTB, were stronger for children with ID only than children with ASD + ID or ASD only. Associations were similar for children with ASD + ID and ASD only.
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12. Schlenz AM, Carpenter LA, Bradley C, Charles J, Boan A. {{Age Differences in Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Hospitalizations in Preadolescent and Adolescent Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2015 (Mar 5)
This paper evaluated age differences in emergency department care and inpatient hospitalizations in 252 preadolescent and adolescent youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs; ages 9-18). Records from youth with ASDs were linked to acute care utilization records and were compared to a demographically similar comparison group of youth without ASDs (N = 1260). A particular focus was placed on utilization for psychiatric concerns and injuries or accidents. Results suggested that psychiatric care was more likely for youth with ASDs in both the preadolescent and adolescent cohorts versus comparison youth, with no significant differences between age cohorts. In contrast, results for the accident and injury categories suggested age-specific findings. Results suggest opportunities for prevention efforts for youth with ASDs.
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13. Tang AH, Alger BE. {{Homer protein-metabotropic glutamate receptor binding regulates endocannabinoid signaling and affects hyperexcitability in a mouse model of fragile x syndrome}}. {J Neurosci};2015 (Mar 4);35(9):3938-3945.
The Fmr1 knock-out mouse model of fragile X syndrome (Fmr1(-/y)) has an epileptogenic phenotype that is triggered by group I metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) activation. We found that a membrane-permeable peptide that disrupts mGluR5 interactions with long-form Homers enhanced mGluR-induced epileptiform burst firing in wild-type (WT) animals, replicating the early stages of hyperexcitability in Fmr1(-/y). The peptide enhanced mGluR-evoked endocannabinoid (eCB)-mediated suppression of inhibitory synapses, decreased it at excitatory synapses in WTs, but had no effect on eCB actions in Fmr1(-/y). At a low concentration, the mGluR agonist did not generate eCBs at excitatory synapses but nevertheless induced burst firing in both Fmr1(-/y) and peptide-treated WT slices. This burst firing was suppressed by a cannabinoid receptor antagonist. We suggest that integrity of Homer scaffolds is essential for normal mGluR-eCB functioning and that aberrant eCB signaling resulting from disturbances of this molecular structure contributes to the epileptic phenotype of Fmr1(-/y).
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14. Unver B, Oner O, Yurtbasi P. {{[Differential diagnosis between schizotypal personality disorder and autism spectrum disorders: a case report]}}. {Turk Psikiyatri Derg};2015 (Spring);26(1):65-70.
Schizotypal personality disorder is characterized by social and interpersonal deficits marked by discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior. Inappropriate or constricted affect, reduced capacity for relationships, lack of close friends and reduced capacity for social life are the symptoms that overlap both schizotypal personality disorder and autism spectrum disorders. The making of differential diagnosis may be difficult since several symptoms are similar between these disorders. In this study, we discussed the differential diagnosis issues on the basis of an adolescent case. Odd apperance, magical thoughts, reference thoughts suggests Schizotypal Personality Disorder whereas lack of eye contact at 2 years old, a preference to be isolated and play alone and referral to a child psychiatrist at 4 years old suggest Autism Spectrum Disorders. Based on the results of psychological assessment, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) profile is compatible with autistic children’s profiles. Based on Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the patient’s anxiety, lack of close friends, constricted affect symptoms which take place in the category of interpersonal schizotypy seems to overlap with lack of communication of Autism Spectrum Disorders. This case report indicates that, separation of autism and schizophrenia, a very important historical breakthrough in autism research, may be blurred in cases with less typical clinical pictures representing autistic and schizophrenic « spectrum » diagnosis.
15. Vulchanova M, Saldana D, Chahboun S, Vulchanov V. {{Figurative language processing in atypical populations: the ASD perspective}}. {Front Hum Neurosci};2015;9:24.
This paper is intended to provide a critical overview of experimental and clinical research documenting problems in figurative language processing in atypical populations with a focus on the Autistic Spectrum. Research in the comprehension and processing of figurative language in autism invariably documents problems in this area. The greater paradox is that even at the higher end of the spectrum or in the cases of linguistically talented individuals with Asperger syndrome, where structural language competence is intact, problems with extended language persist. If we assume that figurative and extended uses of language essentially depend on the perception and processing of more concrete core concepts and phenomena, the commonly observed failure in atypical populations to understand figurative language remains a puzzle. Various accounts have been offered to explain this issue, ranging from linking potential failure directly to overall structural language competence (Norbury, 2005; Brock et al., 2008) to right-hemispheric involvement (Gold and Faust, 2010). We argue that the dissociation between structural language and figurative language competence in autism should be sought in more general cognitive mechanisms and traits in the autistic phenotype (e.g., in terms of weak central coherence, Vulchanova et al., 2012b), as well as failure at on-line semantic integration with increased complexity and diversity of the stimuli (Coulson and Van Petten, 2002). This perspective is even more compelling in light of similar problems in a number of conditions, including both acquired (e.g., Aphasia) and developmental disorders (Williams Syndrome). This dissociation argues against a simple continuity view of language interpretation.
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16. Zuckerman KE, Lindly OJ, Sinche BK, Nicolaidis C. {{Parent Health Beliefs, Social Determinants of Health, and Child Health Services Utilization Among US School-age Children With Autism}}. {J Dev Behav Pediatr};2015 (Feb 18)
OBJECTIVE:: Substantial variation exists in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) care by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; however, the role of parent health beliefs in this variation is poorly understood. Study goals were to (1) examine variation in parent beliefs about ASD prognosis and treatment according to social determinants of health (SDH) and (2) assess whether this variation was associated with variable health services utilization, among 1420 children with special health care needs (CSHCN) having ASD. METHODS:: We used linked data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Treatment and the 2009-2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Bivariate and multivariate analyses assessed variation in parent beliefs according to race/ethnicity, household income, and parent educational attainment. Further analyses assessed whether variation in beliefs was associated with the use of psychotropic medication, traditional therapy, or complementary/alternative therapy for ASD. RESULTS:: Parents of lower educational attainment or who had lower income were more likely to think that their child’s condition was a mystery. Near-poor families were less likely to believe that they had the power to change the child’s condition. Parents of minority children were more likely than white children to view their child’s condition as temporary. However, these differences in beliefs only had modest associations with variation in use of the health services analyzed. CONCLUSIONS:: Some SDH-related variation exists in health beliefs among parents of children with ASD, but these differences may not be the main factors accounting for ASD health care disparities.
