Neurodevelopmental outcome in one-year-old children born preterm: differences between low birth weight and very low birth weight.

Background: In preterm infants, low birth weight represents one of the major risk factors for health and developmental issues. In Italy, most of the studies are focused on extremely preterm or very and extremely low birth weight (VLBW, ELBW) children, whereas little data are available on the neurodevelopmental outcome of low birth weight (LBW) children. We aimed to study the developmental profile of a group of preterm children comparing cognitive, language and motor performances between LBW and VLBW.

The Floor Effect on the ABAS-II in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The present study aimed at enhancing the assessment of adaptive behavior in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder trough the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-Second Edition. To overcome the limits underpinning floor effect, which are commonly observed with the traditional methods, the statistical Hessl method and its revision by Orsini, Pezzuti and Hulbert was adopted. The results showed a more variation using the former method compared to the latter: a greater impairment in Social versus Leisure skills emerged.

Assessing the three attentional networks in children from three to six years: A child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction.

Attention involves three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct neural networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. This study aimed to analyze the development of attentional networks in children aged between 3 and 6 years using a child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction (ANTI), the ANTI-Birds. The sample included 88 children divided into four age groups: 3-year-old, 4-year-old, 5-year-old, 6-year-old children.

Prognostic factors and predictors of outcome in children with autism spectrum disorder: the role of the paediatrician.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder is a complex condition with wide variation in type and severity that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, restricted/repetitive behaviours and adaptive behaviours. In recent years, research has deepened the study of the predictive factors of optimal outcome, intended as indicators of positive trajectory in children with a previous diagnosis of autism who, after a therapeutic path, show a significant reduction in the "core" symptoms of autism and a positive evolution in social, adaptive, affective, and relational skills.

Methods: The study included 40 children aged 21 to 66 months, enrolled between 2015 and 2016 for an autism spectrum disorder clinical suspicious.

Parental perception of stress and emotional-behavioural difficulties of children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.

Background And Aims: The daily challenges of caring for a child with autism spectrum disorder affect many areas of everyday life and parental well-being, as well as parents' ability to manage the needs of the family and the child concerned. A better understanding of parents' perception of their child's characteristics can allow better support for them and individualize intervention protocols in a more accurate way. The main objective of this study is the evaluation of the perception of stress by parents of children with autism compared to parents of children with specific language impairment.

Parent-Reported Behavioural Changes in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social interaction and reciprocal communication. During a pandemic, when social distancing becomes mandatory for all, both parents and children are not supported in-person by their therapists and cannot participate in usual therapies. This study reports the main clinical changes experienced by parents of children with during the first month of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

Neurodevelopmental outcome of Italian preterm children at 1year of corrected age by Bayley-III scales: An assessment using local norms.

Background: Premature birth is often associated with neurodevelopmental difficulties throughout childhood. In the first three years of life, the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (Bayley-III) constitute one of the most used tools for assessing child development. Since Bayley-III original norms are based on United States (US) population, it remains uncertain whether their use in other countries (e.

ASSESSMENT OF A LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENTAL RELATIONSHIP-BASED APPROACH IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER.

90 Italian children (72 boys, 18 girls) with a diagnosis of infantile autism (age range = 2.5-16.5 yr.

Desmopressin and oxybutynin in monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and an assessment of predictive factors.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy of desmopressin plus oxybutynin and compare two starting dosages of desmopressin (120 and 240 µg) in a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial for children with monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (MNE) resistant to desmopressin. The predictive factors of children with MNE responsive to desmopressin and combination therapy were also evaluated.

Patients And Methods: Our sample included 206 patients aged between 6 and 13 (mean age 10.

[ADHD and multimodal intervention].

During the year 2003, the National Register of the Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been implemented in Italy. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, which is its leading technical and scientific body, with the aim to set up a sound database gathering detailed information on the prescription of Ritalin at the national level. The latter represents the most diffused elective drug treatment for such an early-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome.

Methylphenidate administration to adolescent rats determines plastic changes on reward-related behavior and striatal gene expression.

Administration of methylphenidate (MPH, Ritalin) to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an elective therapy, but raises concerns for public health, due to possible persistent neurobehavioral alterations. Wistar adolescent rats (30 to 46 day old) were administered MPH or saline (SAL) for 16 days, and tested for reward-related and motivational-choice behaviors. When tested in adulthood in a drug-free state, MPH-pretreated animals showed increased choice flexibility and economical efficiency, as well as a dissociation between dampened place conditioning and more marked locomotor sensitization induced by cocaine, compared to SAL-pretreated controls.

Beneficial effects of enriched environment on adolescent rats from stressed pregnancies.

The capacity of an early environmental intervention to normalize the behavioural and immunological dysfunctions produced by a stressed pregnancy was investigated. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats underwent three 45-min sessions per day of prenatal restraint stress (PS) on gestation days 11-21, and their offspring were assigned to either an enriched-environment or standard living cages throughout adolescence [postnatal days (pnd) 22-43]. Juvenile rats from stressed pregnancies had a prominent depression of affiliative/playful behaviour and of basal circulating CD4 T lymphocytes, CD8 T lymphocytes and T4/T8 ratio.

Acetyl-L-carnitine reduces impulsive behaviour in adolescent rats.

The attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can affect human infants and adolescents. One important feature of this disorder is behavioural impulsivity. This study assessed the ability of chronic acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC, saline or 100 mg/kg SC, plus 50 mg/kg orally) to reduce impulsivity in a validated animal model for ADHD.

Environmental enrichment during adolescence reverses the effects of prenatal stress on play behaviour and HPA axis reactivity in rats.

Prenatal stress (PS) can produce profound and long-lasting perturbations of individual adaptive capacities, which in turn can result in an increased proneness to behavioural disorders. Indeed, in PS rats there is evidence of impaired social play behaviour, disturbances in a variety of circadian rhythms, enhanced anxiety and increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. This study was designed to experimentally investigate the degree of reversibility of PS-induced disturbances of social play and HPA reactivity by assessing the effect of the enrichment of the physical environment on PS rats during periadolescence.