1. Bekhet AK, Zauszniewski JA. {{Psychometric Properties of the Resourcefulness Scale Among Caregivers of Persons With Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {West J Nurs Res}. 2013.
Caregiving for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be very costly to caregivers’ well-being. Resourcefulness interventions have shown increases in positive health outcomes. However, before delivering the intervention, there should be a reliable and a valid measure to test resourcefulness. The psychometric properties of the Resourcefulness Scale (RS) have not been examined among ASD caregivers. This study examined the psychometrics of the 28-item RS in a convenience sample of 204 ASD caregivers. A Cronbach’s alpha of .91 showed the internal consistency of the RS. Construct validity was supported by the emergence of two dimensions of resourcefulness (personal and social) in a confirmatory factor analysis and by substantial intercorrelations between the two subscales (r = .48, p < .001). Findings suggested the reliability and validity of RS among ASD caregivers, which is a necessary step toward implementing resourcefulness interventions to help ASD caregivers to deal with their stress and improve their quality of life.
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2. de Boer-Schellekens L, Keetels M, Eussen M, Vroomen J. {{No Evidence for Impaired Multisensory Integration of Low-Level Audiovisual Stimuli in Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {Neuropsychologia}. 2013.
Abrupt click sounds can improve the visual processing of flashes in several ways. Here, we examined this in high functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) using three tasks: 1) a task where clicks improve sensitivity for visual temporal order (temporal ventriloquism); 2) a task where a click improves visual search (pip-and-pop), and 3) a task where a click speeds up the visual orienting to a peripheral target (clock reading). Adolescents with ASD were, compared to adolescents with typical development (TD), impaired in judgments of visual temporal order, but they were unimpaired in visual search and orienting. Importantly, in all tasks visual performance of the ASD group improved by the presence of clicks by at least equal amounts as in the TD group. This suggests that adolescents and young adults with ASD show no generalized deficit in the multisensory integration of low-level audiovisual stimuli and/or the phasic alerting by abrupt sounds.
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3. Garcia-Junco-Clemente P, Chow DK, Tring E, Lazaro MT, Trachtenberg JT, Golshani P. {{Overexpression of calcium-activated potassium channels underlies cortical dysfunction in a model of PTEN-associated autism}}. {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}. 2013.
De novo phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome ten (PTEN) mutations are a cause of sporadic autism. How single-copy loss of PTEN alters neural function is not understood. Here we report that Pten haploinsufficiency increases the expression of small-conductance calcium-activated potassium channels. The resultant augmentation of this conductance increases the amplitude of the afterspike hyperpolarization, causing a decrease in intrinsic excitability. In vivo, this change in intrinsic excitability reduces evoked firing rates of cortical pyramidal neurons but does not alter receptive field tuning. The decreased in vivo firing rate is not associated with deficits in the dendritic integration of synaptic input or with changes in dendritic complexity. These findings identify calcium-activated potassium channelopathy as a cause of cortical dysfunction in the PTEN model of autism and provide potential molecular therapeutic targets.
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4. Spencer D, Marshall J, Post B, Kulakodlu M, Newschaffer C, Dennen T, Azocar F, Jain A. {{Psychotropic Medication Use and Polypharmacy in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {Pediatrics}. 2013.
OBJECTIVE:The objectives of this study were to examine rates and predictors of psychotropic use and multiclass polypharmacy among commercially insured children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).METHODS:This retrospective observational study used administrative medical and pharmacy claims data linked with health plan enrollment and sociodemographic information from 2001 to 2009. Children with ASD were identified by using a validated ASD case algorithm. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as concurrent medication fills across >/=2 classes for at least 30 days. Multinomial logistic regression was used to model 5 categories of psychotropic use and multiclass polypharmacy.RESULTS:Among 33 565 children with ASD, 64% had a filled prescription for at least 1 psychotropic medication, 35% had evidence of psychotropic polypharmacy (>/=2 classes), and 15% used medications from >/=3 classes concurrently. Among children with polypharmacy, the median length of polypharmacy was 346 days. Older children, those who had a psychiatrist visit, and those with evidence of co-occurring conditions (seizures, attention-deficit disorders, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or depression) had higher odds of psychotropic use and/or polypharmacy.CONCLUSIONS:Despite minimal evidence of the effectiveness or appropriateness of multidrug treatment of ASD, psychotropic medications are commonly used, singly and in combination, for ASD and its co-occurring conditions. Our results indicate the need to develop standards of care around the prescription of psychotropic medications to children with ASD.
