1. Akram B, Batool M, Bibi A. {{Burden of care and Suicidal Ideation among Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Perceived Social Support as a Moderator}}. {J Pak Med Assoc}. 2019; 69(4): 504-8.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the moderation effect of perceived social support between burden of care and suicidal ideation among mothers of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder.. METHODS: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2017 to February 2018 in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad Lahore, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Jhelum and Sialkot, and comprised of mothers of Autism Spectrum Disorder children aged 7-12 years who were selected conveniently from the special schools in their respective cities. Standardized tools were used to assess the burden of care, perceived social support and suicidal ideation among the participants. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 373 mothers approached, 356(95.4%) responded, but the study was completed by 339(95.2%) of them. There was positive relationship (p<0.01) between burden of care and suicidal ideation, and whereas results showed negative relationship among perceived social support, burden of care (p<0.001) and suicidal ideation (p<0.001). The burden of care positively (p<0.001) and perceived social support negatively (p<0.002) affected suicidal ideation. Perceived social support moderated the burden of care-suicidal ideation relationship (p<0.001) among the mothers.. CONCLUSIONS: Social support provided by the significant others lowered the burden of care and suicidal ideation among mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Lien vers Pubmed
2. Barnhart WR, Havercamp SM, Lorenz A, Yang EA. {{Better Together: A Pilot Study on Cooking Matters for Adults With Developmental Disabilities and Direct Support Professionals}}. {Nutrition and metabolic insights}. 2019; 12: 1178638819840036.
Adults with developmental disabilities face barriers to making healthy lifestyle choices that mirror the barriers faced by the direct support professionals who serve them. These two populations, direct support professionals and adults with developmental disabilities, are likely to lead inactive lifestyles, eat unhealthy diets, and be obese. Moreover, direct support professionals influence the nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and health behaviors of the adults with developmental disabilities whom they serve. We piloted a cooking-based nutrition education program, Cooking Matters for Adults, to dyads of adults with developmental disabilities (n = 8) and direct support professionals (n = 7). Team-taught by a volunteer chef and nutrition educator, Cooking Matters for Adults uses an active learning approach to teach food preparation safety skills and nutrition knowledge to inform healthy food and beverage choices. We assessed healthy food preparation, intake of a balanced diet, healthy food and beverage choices, and cooking confidence and barriers at pre-test, post-test, and 6-months after the intervention. Among both adults with developmental disabilities and direct support professionals, positive trends in healthy food preparation, eating a balanced diet, and reduction in cooking barriers were observed at post-test and 6-months. We also qualitatively assessed knowledge of and attitudes toward healthy eating, frequency of food and beverage intake, knowledge about kitchen skills and safety, as well as overall satisfaction, cooking confidence, and acceptability of the dyad approach. Participants with developmental disabilities and direct support professionals reported that they learned about healthy food and beverage choices and various cooking skills. Participants reported confidence in skills learned and were satisfied with the intervention and approach of including adults with developmental disabilities and direct support professionals in the intervention together.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Enav Y, Erhard-Weiss D, Kopelman M, Samson AC, Mehta S, Gross JJ, Hardan AY. {{A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism}}. {Autism Res}. 2019.
Parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report higher levels of stress and other negative affective states than parents of typically developing children. One important resource in managing these heightened levels of negative affect is emotion regulation, which in turn depends upon the ability to recognize and understand one’s own and others’ mental states (referred to as mentalization or reflective functioning). In this study, parents of children with ASD either participated in a mentalization-based group intervention (N = 36) or a delayed treatment (N = 28). Compared to delayed treatment participants, parents in the mentalization-based group had increases in reflective functioning and in the belief that emotions can change. Moreover, they reported decreased behavioral and emotional symptoms in their children, and greater parental self-efficacy. These preliminary findings support previous studies, which have shown that mentalization-based interventions for parents lead to positive outcomes, and suggest that these findings may apply to a diverse population of parents such as those of children with broader autism phenotype or children with different neurological disorders. Further studies to evaluate the effects of the intervention are recommended. Autism Res 2019. (c) 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: In this study, parents of children with ASD participated in a group intervention designed to increase their awareness of mental states (their own and their children’s) and to enhance their emotion regulation. Compared to delayed treatment parents, those in the intervention group showed increased awareness of developmental states, and reported increased belief that emotions can change and decreased levels of behavioral and emotional symptoms in their children.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. Fogelson N, Li L, Diaz-Brage P, Amatriain-Fernandez S, Valle-Inclan F. {{Altered predictive contextual processing of emotional faces versus abstract stimuli in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology}. 2019; 130(6): 963-75.
OBJECTIVES: We investigated the proposition that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with predictive contextual processing deficits. METHODS: We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) in adults with ASD and controls during the performance of a predictive contextual processing task, using either triangles or emotional faces. Targets were preceded by either randomized sequences (R) or by sequences including a predictive sequence (P). RESULTS: ASD subjects showed an attenuated behavioral facilitation (P versus R) compared with controls (faces). P3b amplitudes of P, R and the predictive sequence (n-1) were attenuated in ASD compared with controls. However, the attenuation of n-1 was more pronounced during the processing of faces. Controls demonstrated shorter peak P3b latencies of P versus R, while this facilitation was absent in ASD subjects. ASD subjects demonstrated functional connectivity alterations during the processing of random (triangles and faces) and predicted targets (faces). These changes were associated with weaker, more randomised, functional connections between frontal and parietal regions in ASD. CONCLUSIONS: We found predictive contextual processing alterations in ASD, which were more pronounced during the processing of emotional faces compared with abstract stimuli. SIGNIFICANCE: We provide novel evidence for the proposition that ASD is associated with deficits of top-down predictions.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
5. Lakes KD, Neville R, Vazou S, Schuck SEB, Stavropoulos K, Krishnan K, Gonzalez I, Guzman K, Tavakoulnia A, Stehli A, Palermo A. {{Beyond Broadway: Analysis of Qualitative Characteristics of and Individual Responses to Creatively Able, a Music and Movement Intervention for Children with Autism}}. {Int J Environ Res Public Health}. 2019; 16(8).
Movement in response to music represents one of the natural social environments in which physical activity occurs. The study of music and movement, including dance, requires a careful, holistic consideration of many features, which may include music, physical activity, motor learning, social engagement, emotion, and creativity. The overarching goal of this manuscript is to examine qualitative characteristics of and individual responses to a music and movement intervention (Creatively Able) for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We provide a description of Creatively Able, illustrating how the program design and physical and social environment were informed by children’s needs and preferences in order to provide an enriched environment in which to promote multiple systems in children with ASD. Using data from two pilot studies with 20 children with ASD, we illustrate how researchers can use observational research methods to measure important aspects of the social environment (e.g., children’s engagement during intervention sessions) as well as engagement of potential underlying behavioral mechanisms (e.g., self-regulation) that might reduce clinical symptoms. We further illustrate how individual responses to intervention (e.g., improvements in behaviors or symptoms) can be studied in physically active interventions. Our pilot study results showed group-level reductions in Stereotyped and Compulsive behaviors of 8% and 4%, respectively; posthoc analysis revealed that there were substantial individual differences in children’s responses to the intervention. This research illustrates robust methods that can be applied to intervention research to improve our understanding of important features of interventions that might help promote development in various domains, including executive functions and self-regulation.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
6. Simmons DR. {{Some clarifications on neural noise and sensory sensitivities in Autism}}. {Cognitive neuroscience}. 2019: 1-3.
Ward (this issue) has provided an elegant synthesis of the literature on the neural basis of individual differences in sensory sensitivity, and a useful proposed framework to guide future research. In this commentary I clarify some of the issues raised by Ward (this issue) surrounding neural noise and sensory sensitivities in autism.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
7. Yu J, Liu X, Zhou J, Xue X, Muenzel M, Schulze PC, Moebius-Winkler S, Keil T, Meng Z, Tang S. {{Long-term safety and efficacy of combined percutaneous LAA and PFO/ASD closure: a single-center experience (LAAC combined PFO/ASD closure)}}. {Expert review of medical devices}. 2019: 1-7.
OBJECTIVES: To report long-term safety and efficacy of combined percutaneous LAA and PFO/ASD closure. METHODS: A retrospective study of 370 consecutive patients undergoing LAAC procedures using the Watchman (WM) device. Data were compared between 330 cases only with LAAC procedure (Group I) and 25/5 (PFO/ASD) cases with sequential procedures of LAAC and PFO/ASD closure (Group II). RESULTS: Compared to Group I, Group II had more males (86.7% vs. 65.8%, p < 0.05) and a higher rate of stroke (33.3% vs. 10.6%, p < 0.01), but there were no statistical differences in the remaining patient characteristics. During the follow-up period, there were no significant differences between the two groups in embolism events (6.1% vs. 0%, p = 0.39), device related thrombus (5.8% vs 3.3%, p = 1.0), major bleeding (9.4% vs. 6.7%, p = 1.0) and cardiac death (3.6% vs. 0%, p = 0.61). The observed rate of all thromboembolic events by Kaplan-Meier analysis was decreased by 39.9% and 100% and the observed annual rate of bleeding was reduced by 32.9% and 57.6% in Group I and Group II, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: LAAC combined with PFO/ASD closure might be an ideal choice to prevent stroke and other thrombotic complications in patients with both NVAF and PFO/ASD. Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
