Pancreatic Replacement Therapy for Maladaptive Behaviors in Preschool Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Importance: There is an urgent unmet need for a treatment addressing the core symptoms and associated maladaptive symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), especially in preschool populations.

Objectives: To evaluate whether treatment of children with ASD aged 3 to 6 years treated with high-protease pancreatic therapy produces long- and short-term improvements in autism-associated maladaptive behaviors.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study at 32 sites across the US used a double-blind parallel group, delayed-start design comprising a 2-week blinded placebo run-in, and a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled segment (12 weeks).

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Complementary-Integrative Medicine.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 0.6%-1.7% of children.

Visual and social differences in dyslexia: deep phenotyping of four cases with spared phonology.

Diagnostic criteria for dyslexia describe specific reading difficulties, and single-deficit models, including the phonological deficit theory, have prevailed. Children seeking diagnosis, however, do not always show phonological deficits, and may present with strengths and challenges beyond reading. Through extensive neurological, neuropsychological, and academic evaluation, we describe four children with visuospatial, socio-emotional, and attention impairments and spared phonology, alongside long-standing reading difficulties.

The Associations Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, Internalizing Symptoms, and Academic Performance in Children With Reading Disorder: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Objective: To investigate whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was associated with anxiety, depression, and academic performance (AP) in children with reading disorder (RD), and whether ADHD-Inattention (ADHD-IN) moderated these relationships.

Method: Parents and teachers of children with RD ( = 147, ages 6-18) completed evaluations of SCT, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and AP, every 3 months for 18 months. Baseline and longitudinal associations between SCT and outcomes, and effect moderation of ADHD-IN, were assessed.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the benefits of a gluten-free diet and/or casein-free diet for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Context: It has been suggested that a gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diet may alleviate the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and facilitate neurodevelopment of children with ASD. Studies to date have been inconclusive.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate (through quantitative meta-analysis) the efficacy and safety of a GFCF diet for children with ASD.

The role of grit and resilience in children with reading disorder: a longitudinal cohort study.

Prior studies have suggested that grit and resilience predict both academic and career success. However, these qualities have not been examined in children with reading disorder (RD). We therefore investigated whether grit and resilience were associated with anxiety, depression, academic performance, and quality of life (QOL) in these students.

The association between anxiety and academic performance in children with reading disorder: A longitudinal cohort study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between anxiety and overall academic performance (AP) in children with reading disorder (RD). This two-year longitudinal cohort study included 128 participants (aged 7-14 years) with RD. Anxiety symptoms were evaluated using the School Anxiety Scale - Teacher Report for the first year and the eight-item Spence Children's Anxiety Scale for the second year.

Editorial: Addressing the "Cliff" for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Parents of young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) desperately search for a cure for their child's disorder. Depending on their child's severity or lack of progress, parents shift from looking for a cure to finding arrangements where their child can live a fulfilling life as an adult when they are less involved and less able to help. Sadly, they too often find that the resources they have fought for their children to receive disappear when their youngsters leave school.

Enhanced visceromotor emotional reactivity in dyslexia and its relation to salience network connectivity.

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder mainly defined by reading difficulties. During reading, individuals with dyslexia exhibit hypoactivity in left-lateralized language systems. Lower activity in one brain circuit can be accompanied by greater activity in another, and, here, we examined whether right-hemisphere-based emotional reactivity may be elevated in dyslexia.

Editorial: What to Do About Rigid, Repetitive Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Rigid, repetitive behaviors (RRBs) as a part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are perplexing and challenging to treat effectively. First, how is it that they associate with deficits in social communication and social interaction to create a strong symptomatic association for the DSM-5 diagnosis of ASD? Deficits in social communication make sense in how they define a developmental disorder, but what is the mechanism by which social interaction and RRBs connect to define the classification of ASD? Perhaps it is that, rather than by neurotransmitters or linked structural brain regions, ASD is a neural systems condition mediated by abnormalities in regionally distributed cortical networks..

Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study.

Participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 121, mean [SD] age: 14.6 [8.0] years) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 40, 16.

Publisher Correction: ASPI: a public-private partnership to develop treatments for autism.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Quality of Life Among School-Age Children With Autism: The Oak Hill School Outcomes Study.

Prior studies have documented a lower quality of life (QOL) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing peers, but few studies have examined the trajectory of QOL over time in the same population. We conducted a 2-year cohort study in 29 children attending a specialized school for ASD with quarterly measures of parent-rated QOL as well as parent and teacher measures of behavior and social skills to determine the trajectory of change in QOL and predictors of change. The average change in QOL was constant (no change over time), but there was substantial variation with some students showing significant gains and others showing declines.

Automated recognition of spontaneous facial expression in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: parsing response variability.

Background: Reduction or differences in facial expression are a core diagnostic feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet evidence regarding the extent of this discrepancy is limited and inconsistent. Use of automated facial expression detection technology enables accurate and efficient tracking of facial expressions that has potential to identify individual response differences.

Methods: Children and adults with ASD (N = 124) and typically developing (TD, N = 41) were shown short clips of "funny videos.

Relationship Between Sleep and Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Exploring the Impact of Sleep Variability.

Objective: The relationship between sleep (caregiver-reported and actigraphy-measured) and other caregiver-reported behaviors in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was examined, including the use of machine learning to identify sleep variables important in predicting anxiety in ASD.

Methods: Caregivers of ASD ( = 144) and typically developing (TD) ( = 41) participants reported on sleep and other behaviors. ASD participants wore an actigraphy device at nighttime during an 8 or 10-week non-interventional study.

Dietary Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-analysis.

Context: Dietary interventions such as restrictive diets or supplements are common treatments for young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Evidence for the efficacy of these interventions is still controversial.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of specific dietary interventions on symptoms, functions, and clinical domains in subjects with ASD by using a meta-analytic approach.

The SOFIA Study: Negative Multi-center Study of Low Dose Fluoxetine on Repetitive Behaviors in Children and Adolescents with Autistic Disorder.

Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that reduces obsessive-compulsive symptoms. There is limited evidence supporting its efficacy for repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of fluoxetine in 158 individuals with ASD (5-17 years).

Improving autism perinatal risk factors: A systematic review.

Background: Current understanding of the etiology of autism is based on the interaction of multiple genes with each other and with environmental factors, leading to a neurodevelopmental process that results in the expression of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the child. This suggests that it might be possible to strengthen resilience to environmental stressors during the perinatal period to improve outcomes and possibly prevent the development of ASD.

Methods: We searched the MEDLINE database for multiple perinatal factors associated with the development of ASD published between January 1, 2005 and July 1, 2018.

Efficacy and safety of memantine in children with autism spectrum disorder: Results from three phase 2 multicenter studies.

Three phase 2 trials were conducted to assess the efficacy and long-term safety of weight-based memantine extended release (ER) treatment in children with autism spectrum disorder. MEM-MD-91, a 50-week open-label trial, identified memantine extended-release treatment responders for enrollment into MEM-MD-68, a 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled withdrawal trial. MEM-MD-69 was an open-label extension trial in which participants from MEM-MD-68, MEM-MD-91, and open-label trial MEM-MD-67 were treated ⩽48 weeks with memantine extended release.

Caregiver Daily Reporting of Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Observational Study Using Web and Mobile Apps.

Background: Currently, no medications are approved to treat core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One barrier to ASD medication development is the lack of validated outcome measures able to detect symptom change. Current ASD interventions are often evaluated using retrospective caregiver reports that describe general clinical presentation but often require recall of specific behaviors weeks after they occur, potentially reducing accuracy of the ratings.

Clinical Validation of the Autism Behavior Inventory: Caregiver-Rated Assessment of Core and Associated Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

There is a need for measures to track symptom change in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted a validation study on a revised version of the Autism Behavior Inventory (ABI), and a short form (ABI-S). Caregivers of individuals (6-54 years) with confirmed diagnoses of ASD (N = 144) completed the ABI and other rating scales at 4 time points.

An Observational Study With the Janssen Autism Knowledge Engine (JAKE) in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The Janssen Autism Knowledge Engine (JAKE®) is a clinical research outcomes assessment system developed to more sensitively measure treatment outcomes and identify subpopulations in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we describe JAKE and present results from its digital phenotyping (My JAKE) and biosensor (JAKE Sense) components. An observational, non-interventional, prospective study of JAKE in children and adults with ASD was conducted at nine sites in the United States.

Considerations from the 2017 IMFAR Preconference on Measuring Meaningful Outcomes from School-Age to Adulthood.

The autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research community is increasingly considering the importance of measuring outcomes that are meaningful to individuals with ASD and their families. The 2017 IMFAR preconference aimed to gain the perspectives of how to define and measure "meaningful outcomes" from 280 participants, including people with ASD and their families, service providers, and researchers. Six themes were identified: (a) the definition of "outcome" varies by context and perspective; (b) the need to broaden the scope of what researchers measure; (c) the need for new assessment tools; (d) the need to expand data analytic methods; (e) where to focus (with emphasis on considering different developmental stages and aspects of diversity); and (f) a need for community partnerships to bridge research and daily practice.