1. Cheak-Zamora NC, Teti M, Maurer-Batjer A, O’Connor KV, Randolph JK. {{Sexual and Relationship Interest, Knowledge, and Experiences Among Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Archives of sexual behavior}. 2019.
Little research exists to describe sexual and romantic relationships among adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from their perspectives. Sexuality and intimacy are developmentally important and influence health and quality of life for all adolescents and young adults, including those with ASD. This study explored and compared the sex and relationship experiences of 27 adolescents and young adults with ASD (males = 20). Adolescents and young adults participated in semi-structured interviews to explore this topic. Using theme analysis, we uncovered four thematic categories: (1) interest in relationships, (2) ideal partners, (3) realities of adolescent and young adult relationships, and (4) advice about sex and relationships. Although many adolescents and young adults expressed wanting a relationship, few reported having partners. Among those that did, their actual relationships rarely met ideals. Most adolescents and young adults talked with parents and friends but not healthcare providers about sex and relationships. All adolescents and young adults described the need for additional education. Adolescents and young adults express the need for education that covers basic safety and sexual health topics as well as social/relationship skills building and courtship modeling. These findings can inform the design of tailored sexual health intervention. Future research should examine specific issues related to sexuality from the adolescents’ and young adults’ perspectives.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
2. Gonzalez-Romero MF, Avina-Galindo AM, Elbe D, Friedlander R, Vila-Rodriguez F. {{Lifesaving Electroconvulsive Therapy for a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Severe Self-Injurious Behavior, and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome}}. {The journal of ECT}. 2019.
We present a case of a preteen with autism spectrum disorder and severe self-injurious behavior who developed neuroleptic malignant syndrome on antipsychotics and required urgent electroconvulsive therapy and continued maintenance electroconvulsive therapy for ongoing clinical stability.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Lindahl J, Stollon N, Wu K, Liang A, Changolkar S, Steinway C, Trachtenberg S, Coccia A, Devaney M, Jan S. {{Domains of planning for future long-term care of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Parent and sibling perspectives}}. {J Appl Res Intellect Disabil}. 2019.
BACKGROUND: Research shows that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) increasingly outlive caregivers, who often struggle to plan for the future and have little support and knowledge surrounding long-term care planning. METHODS: The study team conducted interviews with parents and siblings of adults with IDD and performed qualitative coding using a modified grounded theory to explore domains of future planning and identify barriers and facilitators. RESULTS: Themes from the interviews revealed seven major domains of future planning that should be considered by caregivers of adults with IDD. These domains are housing, legal planning, identification of primary caregiver(s), financial planning, day-to-day care, medical management and transportation. Approaches to planning within each domain varied greatly. CONCLUSIONS: The study team dentified the domain of « identification of primary caregiver(s) » as potentially the most important step for caregivers when planning for the future, but also observed that the domains identified are significantly interrelated and should be considered together.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. Noriega G. {{Restricted, Repetitive, and Stereotypical Patterns of Behavior in Autism – an fMRI Perspective}}. {IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society}. 2019.
The main objective of this work is to determine whether resting-state fMRI can identify functional connectivity differences between individuals with autism who experience severe issues with restricted, repetitive and stereotypical behaviors, those who experience only mild issues, and controls. We use resting-state fMRI data from the ABIDE-I preprocessed repository, with participants grouped according to their ADI-R Restricted, Repetitive, and Stereotyped Patterns of Behavior Subscore. Three processing methods are used for analysis. A time-correlation approach establishes a basic baseline, and we introduce a method based on sliding time windows, with means across time adjusted to consider the fraction of time the correlation measure is above/below average. We complement these with a band-limited coherence approach. For completeness, preprocessing schemes with and without global signal regression are considered. Our results are in line with recent ones which find both over-and under-connectivities in the autistic brain. We find there are indeed significant differences in connectivity between various regions that differentiate between ASD subjects with severe stereotypical/restrictive behavior issues, those with only mild issues, and controls. Interestingly, for some regions the « signature » of subjects in the milder of the ASD groups appears to be distinct (i.e., over-or under-connected) relative to both the more severe ASD group and the controls.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
5. Zhu Y, Mordaunt CE, Yasui DH, Marathe R, Coulson RL, Dunaway KW, Jianu JM, Walker CK, Ozonoff S, Hertz-Picciotto I, Schmidt RJ, LaSalle JM. {{Placental DNA methylation levels at CYP2E1 and IRS2 are associated with child outcome in a prospective autism study}}. {Hum Mol Genet}. 2019.
DNA methylation acts at the interface of genetic and environmental factors relevant for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Placenta, normally discarded at birth, is a potentially rich source of DNA methylation patterns predictive of ASD in the child. Here, we performed whole methylome analyses of placentas from a prospective study MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies-Learning Early Signs) of high-risk pregnancies. 400 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) discriminated placentas stored from children later diagnosed with ASD compared to typically developing controls. These ASD DMRs were significantly enriched at promoters, mapped to 596 genes functionally enriched in neuronal development, and overlapped genetic ASD risk. ASD DMRs at CYP2E1 and IRS2 reached genome-wide significance, replicated by pyrosequencing, and correlated with expression differences in brain. Methylation at CYP2E1 associated with both ASD diagnosis and genotype within the DMR. In contrast, methylation at IRS2 was unaffected by within DMR genotype, but modified by preconceptional maternal prenatal vitamin use. This study therefore identified two potentially useful early epigenetic markers for ASD in placenta.
