Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are complex neurobio-logical disorders of development characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, together with restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped interests/behavior. There has been a dramatic increase in the reported rates of ASD over the last 40 years which has risen in USA from 1 in 5000 in the mid-1970s to 1 in 88 in 2012. Howev...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This article will review the important steps in making an accurate diagnosis of psychogenic nonepileptic events or episodes (PNEE), and recent developments in diagnosis and treatment. RECENT FINDINGS Several clues can be obtained from the history to help the clinician suspect the diagnosis of PNEE. While none of these clues are diagnostic on their own, each is valuable, and ...

The first documentations of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as a syndrome were made in the early 1940s, in parallel by a psychiatrist and a pediatrician in different countries. Leo Kanner (1943) described 11 children with social aloofness, insistence on sameness, and language delays or oddities. At about the same time, Hans Asperger (1944) described 4 children whom he called ‘little professors’...

It is well established that individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) suffer from mood disorders. Individuals with IDs present with a similar set of depressive behaviors, including dysfunctional cognitive deficits similar to individuals without IDs such as having a low self-concept, attending to negative features of an event, and making negative causal attributions for stressful events (...

BACKGROUND In response to changing reimbursement and other pressures in the health care environment, many physicians have reported the use of alternate coding to substitute for certain clinical diagnoses. However, very little information is available on how physicians who care for children approach diagnosis and coding dilemmas for behavioral and mental disorders, which often present unique add...

This article reviews the research evidence for the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for somatoform disorders. Randomized controlled studies support the efficacy of individual CBT for the treatment of hypochondriasis, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and undifferentiated somatoform disorders including medically unexplained symptoms, chronic fatigue syndrome, and noncardiac chest pai...

Night eating syndrome (NES) is a form of disordered eating associated with evening hyperphagia (overeating at night) and nocturnal ingestions (waking at night to eat). As with other forms of disordered eating, cognitive and behavioral treatment modalities may be effective in reducing NES symptoms. This review presents evidence for a variety of behavioral treatment approaches, including behavior...

Behavioral changes are common in epilepsy patients, with the overall spectrum of behavior in this population skewed toward cognitive impairment and psychopathology. Unfortunately, in many cases, the diagnosis is overlooked and therapeutic opportunities are missed. The pathogenesis of these disorders may include central nervous system pathology, ictal and interictal epileptiform activity, antiep...