Moving Beyond the Phenotypic Correlation Between Anorexia Nervosa and Autism.

The recent systematic review and meta-analysis by Inal-Kaleli et al. is situated within a growing area of research, investigating the relationship between anorexia nervosa and autistic characteristics. Their synthesis of research within the topic finds support for elevated autistic characteristics and autism in individuals with anorexia nervosa and a small but significant correlation between autistic traits and level of eating disorder symptoms.

Does Camouflaging Cause Reduced Quality of Life? A Co-Twin Control Study.

Camouflaging has been proposed to have a detrimental effect on quality of life, yet previous research has not accounted sufficiently for potential confounding by genetic and shared environmental factors. The current study utilized a co-twin control design providing stringent control for a range of confounders to investigate the hypothesis that camouflaging autistic traits has a negative impact on quality of life. The sample included 140 individual twins from 42 monozygotic (MZ) and 28 dizygotic (DZ) twin-pairs, enriched for participants with neurodevelopmental conditions including 22 autistic participants.

Parent-child interaction at age 5 months: genetic and environmental contributions and associations with later socio-communicative development.

Background: Characteristics of parent-child interaction (PCI) early in life have been associated with later development in the child. Twin studies can help to disentangle child contributions to parent-child interaction, for example, by assessing the influence of the child's genetics on his/her social environment, which includes parental behaviour.

Methods: Infant twins from a community sample [354 monozygotic (MZ), 268 same-sex dizygotic (DZ)] were assessed in terms of PCI at age 5 months.

Psychometric Properties of the Parental Stress Scale in Swedish Parents of Children with and without Neurodevelopmental Conditions.

Background: Parents of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDC) are at risk of experiencing elevated levels of parental stress. Access to robust instruments to assess parental stress is important in both clinical and research contexts. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Parental Stress Scale (PSS), completed by parents of 3- to 17-year-old children, with and without NDCs.

Anxiety, concerns and COVID-19: Cross-country perspectives from families and individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the mental health and well-being of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) and of their families worldwide. However, there is insufficient evidence to understand how different factors (e.g.

In search of environmental risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder: study protocol for the OCDTWIN project.

Background: The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design, are ideally suited to study environmental risk factors.

Global motion processing in infants' visual cortex and the emergence of autism.

Autism is a heritable and common neurodevelopmental condition, with behavioural symptoms typically emerging around age 2 to 3 years. Differences in basic perceptual processes have been documented in autistic children and adults. Specifically, data from many experiments suggest links between autism and alterations in global visual motion processing (i.

Realist evaluation of a transdisciplinary mealtime management service for autistic children.

Mealtimes and eating can be difficult for autistic children. A service where different professions work together is required to address the varied and complex mealtime difficulties of autistic children. Little is known about what is needed for such services to be effective.

synr: An R package for handling synesthesia consistency test data.

Synesthesia is a phenomenon where sensory stimuli or cognitive concepts elicit additional perceptual experiences. For instance, in a commonly studied type of synesthesia, stimuli such as words written in black font elicit experiences of other colors, e.g.

Autistic Children Quickly Orient Away from Both Eyes and Mouths During Face Observation.

Studies have supported two different hypotheses of reduced eye gaze in people with ASD; gaze avoidance and gaze indifference, while less is known about the role of anxiety. We tested these hypotheses using an eye-tracking paradigm that cued the eyes or mouth of emotional faces. Autistic children (n = 12, mean age 7 years) looked faster away from both eyes and mouths than controls (n = 22).

Shared familial risk factors between autism spectrum disorder and obesity - a register-based familial coaggregation cohort study.

Background: Meta-analyses suggest an association between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obesity, but the factors underlying this association remain unclear. This study investigated the association between ASD and obesity stratified on intellectual disability (ID). In addition, in order to gain insight into possible shared etiological factors, the potential role of shared familial liability was examined.

Experiences of Parents of Specialist Peer Mentored Autistic University Students.

ABSTRCT: Parents continue to support to autistic university students, and consequently, experience considerable stress.: To explore the experiences of parents of specialist peer mentored university students and to examine these using the ICF as a theoretical framework.: Thirteen semi-structured interviews were completed and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Parent-child interaction during the first year of life in infants at elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) likely emerges from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the environment. The interaction with parents forms a key aspect of an infant's social environment, but few prospective studies of infants at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (who have an older sibling with ASD) have examined parent-child interactions in the first year of life. As part of a European multisite network, parent-child dyads of free play were observed at 5 months (62 EL infants, 47 infants at typical likelihood (TL)) and 10 months (101 EL siblings, 77 TL siblings).

Cost-effectiveness of an indicated preventive intervention for depression in adolescents: a model to support decision making.

Background: Adolescent depression has negative health and economic outcomes in the short- and long-term. Indicated preventive interventions, in particular group based cognitive behavioural therapy (GB-CBT), are effective in preventing depression in adolescents with subsyndromal depression. However, little is known about the cost-effectiveness of these interventions.

Difficulties maintaining prolonged fixation and attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms share genetic influences in childhood.

This study investigated the association between the ability to maintain prolonged (2-minute) fixation on a visual target and ADHD traits in a sample consisting of 120 monozygotic and 120 dizygotic twin pairs, aged 9 to 14 years. More intrusive saccades during the task was associated with higher level of parent-reported ADHD traits. Both intrusive saccades and ADHD symptoms had high heritability estimates, and there was a moderate genetic correlation between number of intrusive saccades and ADHD.

Social competence group intervention (SOCO) for children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study.

This study aimed to describe concept of social competence as a theoretical background for social skills group intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A model of social competence comprised of three components: social skills, social performance, and social adjustment. We also examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the manualized Social Competence group intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (SOCO) using a variety of outcome measures.

Predictive impact of rare genomic copy number variations in siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Identification of genetic biomarkers associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) could improve recurrence prediction for families with a child with ASD. Here, we describe clinical microarray findings for 253 longitudinally phenotyped ASD families from the Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC), encompassing 288 infant siblings. By age 3, 103 siblings (35.

Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, delayed puberty and risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH) is a rare disorder that manifests absent puberty and infertility. Genetic syndromes with hypogonadism, such as Klinefelter syndrome, are associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). However, it is not clear whether patients with HH or transient delayed puberty in general, have an increased risk of NDDs.

Depressive disorders in adolescence, recurrence in early adulthood, and healthcare usage in mid-adulthood: A longitudinal cost-of-illness study.

Background: Depression in adolescence is associated with increased healthcare consumption in adulthood, but prior research has not recognized the heterogeneity of depressive disorders. This paper investigated the additional healthcare usage and related costs in mid-adulthood for individuals with adolescent depression, and examined the mediating role of subsequent depression in early adulthood.

Methods: This study was based on the Uppsala Longitudinal Adolescent Depression Study, initiated in Sweden in the early 1990s.

Uppsala Longitudinal Adolescent Depression Study (ULADS).

Purpose: To present the Uppsala Longitudinal Adolescent Depression Study, initiated in Uppsala, Sweden, in the early 1990s. The initial aim of this epidemiological investigation was to study the prevalence, characteristics and correlates of adolescent depression, and has subsequently expanded to include a broad range of social, economic and health-related long-term outcomes and cost-of-illness analyses.

Participants: The source population was first-year students (aged 16-17) in upper-secondary schools in Uppsala during 1991-1992, of which 2300 (93%) were screened for depression.

Visual Search Performance Does Not Relate to Autistic Traits in the General Population.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is commonly conceived as the extreme end of a continuum. Research suggests that autistic individuals outperform typically developing controls in visual search. Thus, enhanced visual search may represent an adaptive trait associated with ASD.

Parental asthma and risk of autism spectrum disorder in offspring: A population and family-based case-control study.

Background: Associations between parental asthma and prenatal exposure to asthma medications with offspring autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been reported. However, the associations might be confounded by unmeasured (genetic and shared environmental) familial factors.

Objective: We investigated the association between (a) maternal/paternal asthma and offspring ASD, and (b) prenatal exposures to β2-agonists, other asthma medications and offspring ASD using cases and controls selected from the population as well as biological relatives with different degrees of relatedness.

Copy number variation and neuropsychiatric problems in females and males in the general population.

Neurodevelopmental problems (NPs) are more common in males, whereas anxiety and depression are more common in females. Rare copy number variants (CNVs) have been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. The aim of this study was to characterize the relationship between rare CNVs with NPs, anxiety, and depression in a childhood population sample, as well as to examine sex-specific effects.

Viewpoints on how students with autism can best navigate university.

Background: Despite recognition of the challenges faced by students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) there is limited understanding of the barriers and facilitators to participation in major life areas, such as being a university student.

Aim/objective: This research aimed to examine viewpoints on what affects the success of Australian university students with ASD.

Material And Method: Q-methodology was used to describe the viewpoints of university students with ASD, their parents and their mentors, on success at university for students with ASD.