Autism Spectrum Disorders
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How effective is medication for ADHD symptoms in children with ASD?
Clinically significant attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are common and impairing in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).1 Moreover, ADHD is the most common co-occurring mental health diagnosis driving increased rates of medication use in children with ASD.
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Do children with social anxiety disorder benefit from social skills training?
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in children can be difficult to treat, as evidenced by the varied outcomes reported post-treatment.1,2 Although childhood treatments for SAD commonly involve at least some social skills training,3 it isn’t clear whether children with SAD have particular difficulties with social skills. There is therefore a need to better establish whether social skills are an effective target for treating SAD.
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Do ADHD and ASD symptoms have similar characteristics in childhood and young adulthood?
Lucy Riglin and colleagues in the UK have investigated whether ADHD and ASD traits in young adulthood show similar characteristics to those reported in childhood.
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Are autistic behaviours a trait or a state of anorexia nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seem to co-occur more frequently than would be expected by chance.1,2 Yet because most studies investigating the nature of this co-occurrence have used a retrospective design, where the data are prone to recall bias, we don’t know whether the elevation of autistic traits in AN is present from childhood or rather from AN onset.
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Do sex differences affect ASD symptom severity scores?
Researchers in the USA have investigated whether standard diagnostic assessments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are biased against girls.
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Is brain circuitry linked with early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder?
Researchers in San Diego, USA, have studied the relationship between brain network connectivity and emerging autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms in toddlers aged 17-45 months with (n=24) or without (n=23) ASD.
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What mechanisms underlie reduced social attention in people with ASD?
A key predictor of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis is attenuated attention to social stimuli.1 Thus far, the reasons underlying this abnormality are unknown: some have hypothesized reduced social motivation2 while others have suggested aberrant oculomotor function in affected individuals.3
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Do the same mechanisms drive social anxiety in autistic and neurotypical adolescents?
Researchers at King’s College London have recently published data on how cognitive, emotional and sensory factors are associated with social anxiety in adolescents with autism.
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Multi-disciplinary teams are needed to sensitively diagnose autism in Deaf children
An ethnographic study of NHS professionals, who diagnose autism in Deaf children, finds that recognizing the intersections between mental health and Deaf culture is essential for healthcare professionals to make sensitive diagnoses.
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March 2020 – The Bridge
This edition of The Bridge features research digests on ‘FRIENDS’ and anxiety, CAMHS and technology training, OCD and anxiety, parenting, autism and more.
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