Autism Spectrum Disorders
-
Do autistic girls talk differently about social groups?
New data, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggest that pronoun use during natural conversation might inform us about clinically meaningful social function.
Read more -
Do autistic girls have better communication and interaction skills than autistic boys?
There is ongoing debate as to whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differentially affects males and females. Several meta-analyses have found little difference between males and females with ASD in terms of social communication and interaction skills. However, such analyses have often relied on diagnostic instruments such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition 2 that may not be sensitive to how autism presents in females. What’s more, many have been based on global scores, that reflect overall social communication and interaction skills, which could miss subtler differences in specific domains.
Read more -
Dr. Marinos Kyriakopoulos
Dr. Marinos Kyriakopoulos is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Visiting Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, KCL, and Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He is Joint Training Programme Director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Maudsley Scheme. Dr. Kyriakopoulos is an Associate Editor of CAMH, focusing on Clinical Research Updates.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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.
Read more -
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. Thus far, the reasons underlying this abnormality are unknown: some have hypothesized reduced social motivation while others have suggested aberrant oculomotor function in affected individuals.
Read more