1. Bearss K, Burrell TL, Stewart L, Scahill L. {{Parent Training in Autism Spectrum Disorder: What’s in a Name?}}. {Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev}. 2015.
Parent training (PT) is well understood as an evidence-based treatment for typically developing children with disruptive behavior. Within the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the term parent training has been used to describe a wide range of interventions including care coordination, psychoeducation, treatments for language or social development, as well as programs designed to address maladaptive behaviors. As a result, the meaning of « parent training » in ASD is profoundly uncertain. This paper describes the need to delineate the variants of PT in ASD and offers a coherent taxonomy. Uniform characterization of PT programs can facilitate communication with families, professionals, administrators, and third-party payers. Moreover, it may also serve as a framework for comparing and contrasting PT programs. In support of the taxonomy, a purposive sampling of the literature is presented to illustrate the range of parent training interventions in ASD.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
2. Berryessa CM. {{Judicial Perceptions of Media Portrayals of Offenders with High Functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorders}}. {Int J Criminol Sociol}. 2014; 3: 46-60.
In recent years, sensational media reporting focusing on crimes committed by those diagnosed with or thought to have High Functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorders (hfASDs) has caused societal speculation that there is a link between the disorder and violent criminality. No research exists on how and if the judiciary understands and is affected by this coverage. Therefore this study aims to examine how judges perceive and are influenced by media attention surrounding hfASDs and criminality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 California Superior Court Judges, including questions on media portrayal. Judges perceived general media portrayals of hfASDs in both positive and negative ways. However, almost all judges who had experienced media coverage surrounding hfASDs and criminality identified it as misleading and harmful to public perceptions of the disorder. These findings suggest judges are not exempt from media attention surrounding violence and hfASDs, and they recognize the potential adverse effects of this negative coverage. Although judges’ report their opinions are not affected, the results demonstrate that judges are worried that the public and potentially other criminal justice actors are adversely affected and will continue to be moving forward.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
3. Ch’ng C, Kwok W, Rogic S, Pavlidis P. {{Meta-Analysis of Gene Expression in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Autism Res}. 2015.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are clinically heterogeneous and biologically complex. In general it remains unclear, what biological factors lead to changes in the brains of autistic individuals. A considerable number of transcriptome analyses have been performed in attempts to address this question, but their findings lack a clear consensus. As a result, each of these individual studies has not led to any significant advance in understanding the autistic phenotype as a whole. Here, we report a meta-analysis of more than 1000 microarrays across twelve independent studies on expression changes in ASD compared to unaffected individuals, in both blood and brain tissues. We identified a number of known and novel genes that are consistently differentially expressed across three studies of the brain (71 samples in total). A subset of the highly ranked genes is suggestive of effects on mitochondrial function. In blood, consistent changes were more difficult to identify, despite individual studies tending to exhibit larger effects than the brain studies. Our results are the strongest evidence to date of a common transcriptome signature in the brains of individuals with ASD. Autism Res 2015. (c) 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
4. Lyall K, Van de Water J, Ashwood P, Hertz-Picciotto I. {{Asthma and Allergies in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Results From the CHARGE Study}}. {Autism Res}. 2015.
Immune aberrations are often noted in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but whether asthma and allergy are related to ASD is not well defined. This study examined asthma and allergies in association with ASD and phenotypic subsets. Participants were 560 children with confirmed ASD and 391 typically developing children from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment study. Maternally reported child asthma and allergy was compared between cases and controls, and in association with cognitive and behavioral test scores. Prevalence of asthma and overall allergies did not differ between cases and controls, but overall allergy in children with ASD was associated with higher stereotypy scores as measured by the Aberrant Behavior Checklist. In addition, reported food allergies were significantly associated with ASD (adjusted odds ratio = 2.23, 95% confidence interval 1.28, 3.89). Our results suggest food allergies and sensitivities may be more common in children with ASD, and that these issues may correlate with other behaviors. Autism Res 2015. (c) 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
5. Mullard A. {{Fragile X disappointments upset autism ambitions}}. {Nat Rev Drug Discov}. 2015; 14(3): 151-3.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
6. Rao PA, Raman V, Thomas T, Ashok MV. {{IQ in Autism: Is there an Alternative Global Cognitive Index?}}. {Indian J Psychol Med}. 2015; 37(1): 48-52.
BACKGROUND: Intelligence quotient (IQ) but not the core symptoms have been known to predict outcomes in autism. Besides resource issues in India, assessing IQ in presence of autistic symptoms is challenging in general. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a pilot study, we explored different global indices of development in 30 children with confirmed autism. These included Wechsler intelligence scale for children or Wechsler preprimary scale of intelligence-revised (n = 10), Raven’s progressive matrices (RPM) (n = 10), Vineland adaptive behavior scales II, parent report version (VABS) (n = 30) and teacher’s estimate of mental age (TIQ) (n = 30). Three subgroups (Group A) with Wechsler’s scales derived IQ (WISIQ), (Group B) with RPM derived IQ and (Group C) those without a formal IQ measure were compared. RESULTS: All groups were comparable on age and their scores on Childhood Autism Rating Scale and Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism Adaptive behavior composite scores (Ad Bh composite) derived from VABS and WISIQ showed significant correlations with each other in Group A; TIQ significantly correlated with Ad Bh composite scores, but not with the WISIQ, although the latter two scores themselves did not significantly differ from each other. RPM consistently overestimated children’s performance compared to Ad Bh composite or TIQ in Group B, but the Ad Bh composite and TIQ were themselves significantly correlated. In Group C, there were poor correlations between Ad Bh composite and TIQ. The Ad Bh composite score in this group was significantly different from the other two groups. CONCLUSION: There is a need to fine tune the assessment for global cognitive measures in autism and explore their real world importance.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
7. Soorya LV, Siper PM, Beck T, Soffes S, Halpern D, Gorenstein M, Kolevzon A, Buxbaum J, Wang AT. {{Randomized comparative trial of a social cognitive skills group for children with autism spectrum disorder}}. {J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry}. 2015; 54(3): 208-16 e1.
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the efficacy of a targeted social skills training group in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention, Seaver-NETT (Nonverbal communication, Emotion recognition, and Theory of mind Training), is a 12-session cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) for verbal, school-aged children targeting ASD-specific social behavioral impairments. METHOD: Sixty-nine children with ASD, 8 to 11 years of age, with verbal IQs greater than 70, participated in a randomized comparative trial to examine the efficacy of NETT relative to a facilitated play group. Treatment outcomes included caregiver reports of social behavior and neuropsychological assessments of social cognition conducted by blinded raters. Outcomes were collected at baseline, endpoint, and 3 months posttreatment. RESULTS: Significant improvements were found on social behavior outcomes such as nonverbal communication, empathic responding, and social relations in the NETT condition relative to the active control at endpoint. Verbal IQ moderated the interaction effect on social behavior, with higher verbal IQ associated with improvements in the CBI condition. No significant improvements were found on social cognitive outcomes. No significant group differences were found at 3-month follow-up conducted with approximately half the sample (n = 34). CONCLUSION: These data indicate that targeted CBI social skills groups such as NETT improve social communication deficits in verbal, school-aged children with ASD. The moderating effects of high verbal IQ suggest a need to consider participant and treatment characteristics associated with outcomes in future studies. Clinical trial registration information-Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Social Skills Groups in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder; https://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT01190917.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
8. van Iterson L, de Jong PF, Zijlstra BJ. {{Pediatric epilepsy and comorbid reading disorders, math disorders, or autism spectrum disorders: Impact of epilepsy on cognitive patterns}}. {Epilepsy Behav}. 2015; 44C: 159-68.
INTRODUCTION: In pediatric epilepsy, comorbidities are reported to be frequent. The present study focusedon the cognitive patterns of children with isolated epilepsy, children with isolated neurodevelopmental disorders (reading disorders, math disorders, autism spectrum disorders), and children with epilepsy and these neurodevelopmental disorders as comorbidities. METHODS: Based on two samples of referred children, one with epilepsy, reading disorders, math disorders, or ASDs occurring in « isolation » (n=117) and one with reading disorders, math disorders, and ASDs occurring comorbid with epilepsy (n=171), cognitive patterns were compared. The patterns displayed by verbal and nonverbal abilities from the WISC series were studied with repeated measures ANOVA. Thereafter, an exploratory 2 *3 *2 factorial analysis was done to study the independent contribution of the type of comorbidity and of the presence or absence of epilepsy to the VIQ-PIQ pattern. RESULTS: In isolated epilepsy, a VIQ>PIQ pattern was found, which was not seen in the other disorders. When epilepsy and another disorder co-occurred, patterns were altered. They resembled partly the pattern seen in isolated epilepsy and partly the pattern seen in the isolated neurodevelopmental disorder. In comorbid reading disorders, the VIQ>PIQ pattern was mitigated; in comorbid math disorders, it was exacerbated. In comorbid ASDs, no clear pattern emerged. In the presence of epilepsy, patterns characteristic of isolated disorders appeared systematically shifted toward relatively lowered performance abilities or relatively spared verbal abilities. The similar « impact » exerted by epilepsy on the patterns of the various conditions suggested shared mechanisms.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
9. van Schie HT, Gerrits BJ, Buitelaar JK, Kouijzer ME. {{EEG Biofeedback for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Reply to a Commentary by Coben and Ricca (2014)}}. {Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback}. 2015.
Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
10. Warfield ME, Crossman MK, Delahaye J, Der Weerd E, Kuhlthau KA. {{Physician Perspectives on Providing Primary Medical Care to Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2015.
We conducted in-depth case studies of 10 health care professionals who actively provide primary medical care to adults with autism spectrum disorders. The study sought to understand their experiences in providing this care, the training they had received, the training they lack and their suggestions for encouraging more physicians to provide this care. Qualitative data were gathered by phone using a structured interview guide and analyzed using the framework approach. Challenges to providing care were identified at the systems, practice and provider, and education and training levels. Solutions and interventions targeting needed changes at each level were also proposed. The findings have implications for health care reform, medical school and residency training programs, and the development of best practices.
