1. Ghaleiha A, Alikhani R, Kazemi MR, Mohammadi MR, Mohammadinejad P, Zeinoddini A, Hamedi M, Shahriari M, Keshavarzi Z, Akhondzadeh S. {{Minocycline as Adjunctive Treatment to Risperidone in Children with Autistic Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial}}. {J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol}. 2016.
OBJECTIVE: This is an investigation of minocycline efficacy and safety as an adjuvant to risperidone in management of children with autism. METHODS: Forty-six children with diagnosis of autistic disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria (American Psychiatric Association 2000) and a score of >/=12 on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) irritability subscale, who were already drug-free for at least 6 months participated in a randomized controlled trial and underwent 10 weeks of treatment with either minocycline (50 mg twice per day) or placebo in addition to risperidone titrated up to 2 mg/day (based on bodyweight). Patients were evaluated using ABC-C at baseline and at weeks 5 and 10. RESULTS: General linear model repeated measures showed significant effect for time x treatment interaction on the irritability [F(2, 88) = 3.94, p = 0.02] and hyperactivity/noncompliance [F(1.50, 66.05) = 7.92, p = 0.002], but not for lethargy/social withdrawal [F(1.61, 71.02) = 0.98, p = 0.36], stereotypic behavior [F(1.34, 58.80) = 1.55, p = 0.22], and inappropriate speech subscale scores [F(1.52, 66.88) = 1.15, p = 0.31]. By week 10, 21 (91.3%) patients in the minocycline group and 15 (65.5%) patients in the placebo group achieved at least partial response (p = 0.03). Frequencies of adverse events were not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Minocycline seems to be a safe and effective adjuvant in management of patients with autistic disorder. Future studies with larger sample sizes, longer follow-ups, and inflammatory cytokine measurements are warranted to confirm these findings and provide insight into minocycline mechanism of action in autistic disorder.
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2. Minichino A, Singh F, Pineda J, Friederich E, Cadenhead KS. {{Biological Motion induced mu suppression is reduced in Early Psychosis (EP) patients with active negative symptoms and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)}}. {Psychiatry Res}. 2016; 238: 374-7.
There is evidence of genetic and neural system overlap in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Early Psychosis (EP). Five datasets were pooled to compare mu suppression index (MSI), a proxy of mirror neuron activity, in EP, high functioning ASD, and healthy subjects (HS). ASDs and EPs with « active » negative symptoms showed significant differences in mu suppression, in response to Biological Motion/point-light display animation, compared to HS. Preliminary findings suggest that similar neural network deficits in ASD and EP could be driven by the expression of negative symptoms in the latter group of patients. These findings may aid future studies on EP and ASD and facilitate the formulation of new hypotheses regarding their pathophysiology.
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3. Rosen TE, Lerner MD. {{Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms Moderate Longitudinal Patterns of Facial Emotion Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2016.
Facial emotion recognition (FER) is thought to be a key deficit domain in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the extant literature is based solely on cross-sectional studies; thus, little is known about even short-term intra-individual dynamics of FER in ASD over time. The present study sought to examine trajectories of FER in ASD youth over 18 weeks of repeated measurement, and evaluate the effects of internalizing and externalizing symptoms on these trajectories. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses revealed that FER errors decreased over time, even for particularly difficult stimuli. Moreover, FER improvement was enhanced by internalizing symptoms but attenuated by externalizing symptoms. Implications for models of FER development, reciprocal relations between FER and comorbidity, and intervention design and planning are discussed.
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4. Saunders A, Kirk IJ, Waldie KE. {{Hemispheric Coherence in ASD with and without Comorbid ADHD and Anxiety}}. {Biomed Res Int}. 2016; 2016: 4267842.
There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that altered brain connectivity may be a defining feature of disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), anxiety, and ADHD. This study investigated whether resting state functional connectivity, measured by 128-channel EEG oscillation coherence, differs between developmental disorders. Analyses were conducted separately on groups with and without comorbid conditions. Analyses revealed increased coherence across central electrodes over the primary motor cortex and decreased coherence in the frontal lobe networks in those with ASD compared to neurotypical controls. There was increased coherence in occipital lobe networks in the ADHD group compared to other groups. Symptoms of generalised anxiety were positively correlated with both frontal-occipital intrahemispheric (alpha only) coherence and occipital interhemispheric coherence (alpha, approaching theta band). The patterns of coherence in the ASD pure group were different when comorbid conditions were included in the analyses, suggesting that aberrant coherence in the frontal and central areas of the brain is specifically associated with ASD. Our findings support the idea that comorbid conditions are additive, rather than being symptoms of the same disorder.
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5. Scahill L, Jeon S, Boorin SJ, McDougle CJ, Aman MG, Dziura J, McCracken JT, Caprio S, Arnold LE, Nicol G, Deng Y, Challa SA, Vitiello B. {{Weight Gain and Metabolic Consequences of Risperidone in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry}. 2016; 55(5): 415-23.
OBJECTIVE: We examine weight gain and metabolic consequences of risperidone monotherapy in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHOD: This was a 24-week, multisite, randomized trial of risperidone only versus risperidone plus parent training in 124 children (mean age 6.9 +/- 2.35 years; 105 boys and 19 girls) with ASD and serious behavioral problems. We monitored height, weight, waist circumference, and adverse effects during the trial. Fasting blood samples were obtained before treatment and at week 16. RESULTS: In 97 children with a mean of 22.9 +/- 2.8 weeks of risperidone exposure, there was a 5.4 +/- 3.4 kg weight gain over 24 weeks (p < .0001); waist circumference increased from 60.7 +/- 10.4 cm to 66.8 +/- 11.3 cm (p < .0001). At baseline, 59 of 97 children (60.8%) were classified as having normal weight; by week 24, only 25 of 85 (29.4%) remained in that group. Growth curve analysis showed a significant change in body mass index (BMI) z scores from pretreatment to week 24 (p < .0001). This effect was significantly greater for children with reported increased appetite in the first 8 weeks. From before treatment to week 16, there were significant increases in glucose (p = .02), hemoglobin A1c (p = .01), insulin (p <.0001), homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; p < .001), alanine aminotransferase (p = .01), and leptin (p < .0001). Adiponectin declined (p = .003). At baseline, 7 children met conventional criteria for metabolic syndrome; by week 16, 12 additional children were so classified. CONCLUSION: Rapid weight gain with risperidone treatment may promote the cascade of biochemical indices associated with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Appetite, weight, waist circumference, liver function tests, blood lipids, and glucose warrant monitoring. Clinical trial registration information-Drug and Behavioral Therapy for Children With Pervasive Developmental Disorders; http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00080145. Lien vers le texte intégral (Open Access ou abonnement)
6. Schuetze M, Park MT, Cho IY, MacMaster FP, Chakravarty MM, Bray SL. {{Morphological Alterations in the Thalamus, Striatum and Pallidum in Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {Neuropsychopharmacology}. 2016.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with cognitive, motor and emotional symptoms. The thalamus and basal ganglia form circuits with the cortex supporting all three of these behavioral domains. Abnormalities in the structure of sub-cortical regions may suggest atypical development of these networks, with implications for understanding the neural basis of ASD symptoms. Findings from previous volumetric studies have been inconsistent. Here, using advanced surface-based methodology, we investigated localized differences in shape and surface area in the basal ganglia and thalamus in ASD, using T1-weighted anatomical images from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (373 male participants aged 7-35years with ASD and 384 typically developing; TD). We modeled effects of diagnosis, age and their interaction on volume, shape and surface area. In participants with ASD, we found expanded surface area in the right posterior thalamus corresponding to the pulvinar nucleus; and a more concave shape in the left mediodorsal nucleus. Shape of both caudal putamen and pallidum showed a relatively steeper increase in concavity with age in ASD. Within ASD participants, restricted, repetitive behaviours were positively associated with surface area in bilateral globus pallidus. We found no differences in overall volume, suggesting that surface-based approaches have greater sensitivity to detect localized differences in sub-cortical structure. This work adds to a growing body of literature implicating cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamic circuits in the pathophysiology of ASD. These circuits subserve a range of cognitive, emotional and motor functions, and may play a broad role in the complex symptom profile in ASD.Neuropsychopharmacology accepted article preview online, 29 April 2016. doi:10.1038/npp.2016.64.
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7. Sumner E, Leonard HC, Hill EL. {{Overlapping Phenotypes in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Cross-Syndrome Comparison of Motor and Social Skills}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2016.
Motor and social difficulties are often found in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), to varying degrees. This study investigated the extent of overlap of these problems in children aged 7-10 years who had a diagnosis of either ASD or DCD, compared to typically-developing controls. Children completed motor and face processing assessments. Parents completed questionnaires concerning their child’s early motor and current motor and social skills. There was considerable overlap between the ASD and DCD groups on the motor and social assessments, with both groups more impaired than controls. Furthermore, motor skill predicted social functioning for both groups. Future research should consider the relationships between core symptoms and their consequences in other domains.
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8. Vanmarcke S, Mullin C, Van der Hallen R, Evers K, Noens I, Steyaert J, Wagemans J. {{In the Eye of the Beholder: Rapid Visual Perception of Real-Life Scenes by Young Adults with and Without ASD}}. {J Autism Dev Disord}. 2016.
Typically developing (TD) adults are able to extract global information from natural images and to categorize them within a single glance. This study aimed at extending these findings to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a free description open-encoding paradigm. Participants were asked to freely describe what they saw when looking at briefly presented real-life photographs. Our results show subtle but consistent group-level differences. More specifically, individuals with ASD spontaneously reported the presence of people in the display less frequently than TD participants, and they grasped the gist of the scene less well. These findings argue for a less efficient rapid feedforward processing of global semantic aspects and a less spontaneous interpretation of socially salient information in ASD.
