An association between autism and early life exposure to mercury is a hotly debated issue. In this study, 91 autistic Polish children, male and female, 3-4 and 7-9 years old, were compared to 75 age- and sex-matched healthy children with respect to: demographic, perinatal, clinical and developmental measures, parental age, birth order, morphometric measures, vaccination history, and hair mercury content. In demographic and perinatal measures there were no consistent differences between the autistic and control groups. Autistic children had a significantly greater prevalence of adverse reactions after vaccinations and abnormal development than controls. Between 45 and 80% of autistic children experienced developmental regress. Autistic children significantly differed from healthy peers in the concentrations of mercury in hair: younger autistics had lower levels, while older - higher levels than their respective controls. The results suggest that autistic children differ from healthy children in metabolism of mercury, which seems to change with age.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.55782/ane-2010-1791 | DOI Listing |
Autism Res
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Catatonia is a highly morbid psychomotor and affective disorder, which can affect autistic individuals with and without intellectual disability. Catatonic symptoms are treatable with pharmacotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, but the longitudinal effectiveness of these treatments in autistic individuals has not been described. We conducted a prospective observational cohort study of patients with autism and co-morbid catatonia who received outpatient care in a specialized outpatient clinic from July 1, 2021 to May 31, 2024.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBJPsych Open
January 2025
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India.
Background: Developmental regression in children, in the absence of neurological damage or trauma, presents a significant diagnostic challenge. The complexity is further compounded when it is associated with psychotic symptoms.
Method: We discuss a case series of ten children aged 6-10 years, with neurotypical development, presenting with late-onset developmental regression (>6 years of age), their clinical course and outcome at 1 year.
Mol Psychiatry
January 2025
Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli, 80078, Naples, Italy.
Lysosomal storage disorders characterized by defective heparan sulfate (HS) degradation, such as Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA-D (MPS-IIIA-D), result in neurodegeneration and dementia in children. However, dementia is preceded by severe autistic-like behaviours (ALBs), presenting as hyperactivity, stereotypies, social interaction deficits, and sleep disturbances. The absence of experimental studies on ALBs' mechanisms in MPS-III has led clinicians to adopt symptomatic treatments, such as antipsychotics, which are used for non-genetic neuropsychiatric disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
January 2025
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Objective: The goal of this study is to construct a 16-week, two-stage, adaptive intervention consisting of DTT ([discrete trials training], largely considered usual care for children with autism), JASP-EMT (a blended, naturalistic, developmental behavioral intervention involving JASPER [joint attention, symbolic play, engagement and regulation] and EMT [enhanced milieu teaching]), and parent training (P) for improving spontaneous, communicative utterances in school-aged, minimally verbal autistic children. Intervention was delivered both at school (DTT, JASP-EMT) and home (P). This manuscript reports results for the study's primary aim and a closely related secondary aim.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify and characterize how race and ethnicity influence the relationship between autism and weight status, across all categories of weight from underweight to severe obesity.
Study Design: We developed a propensity score-matched cross-sectional dataset of children with and without parent-reported autism in the National Survey of Children Health (NSCH, 2016-2022) and Adolescent Brain and Cognition Development Study (ABCD, 2016-2018). We included non-Hispanic Asian, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic children aged 6 to 17 years.
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