Asperger syndrome, first described by the Austrian physician Hans Asperger (1944), is an uncommon disorder whose clinical features overlap with those of autism (Kanner, 1943) and schizoid personality disorder (Wolff & Barlow, 1979; Wolff & Chick, 1980). Some authorities regard it as part of the "autistic spectrum" (Wing, 1981), while others have argued for the need to separate it from autism (R...

Asperger syndrome is an uncommon condition, but probably more common than classic autism (the only published population study estimated prevalence at 36 per 10 000 children for Asperger syndrome and 5 per 10 000 for autism (Ehlers & Gillberg, 1993)). Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of this disorder is a serious problem, and the average age at diagnosis is several years later than for autism (...

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a subtype of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) characterized by major problems in social and nonverbal communication, together with limited and repetitive forms of behavior and interests. The linguistic and cognitive development in AS is preserved which help us to differentiate it from other subtypes of ASD. However, significant effects of AS on cognitive abilities and br...

Mood disorders occur more frequently in family members of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than in the general population. There may be associations between maternal mood disorder history patterns and specific ASD phenotypes. We therefore examined the relationship between maternal mood disorders and child autism spectrum disorders in 998 mother-child dyads enrolled in a national...

Despite the rapid growth of interest in Asperger disorder in children, there continues to be a lack of awareness of the diagnosis and its implications for adolescents and adults. The reasons for this lack of awareness lie in the history of the disorder and in the historical development of mental health services. Because, as Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to r...

Autism-spectrum disorders are a group of biologically based behavioural syndromes of childhood onset that are characterised by qualitative impairments in reciprocal social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication, together with a restricted and repetitive range of behaviours, interests and activities – the so-called ‘triad of impairments’ (Wing 1981). Among individuals with ‘high-fun...

Asperger Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that reduces a patient’s ability to interact socially, and restricts their interests and abilities. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it has been shown that Asperger patients exhibit reduced activity between the nodes of a resting-state neuronal network comprised of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the medial prefrontal cor...

Asperger syndrome was first described by an Austrian physician, Hans Asperger (1944), as "autistic psychopathy." It is an uncommon disorder whose exact prevalence in the general population is not known. Gillberg and Gillberg (1989) estimated that among Swedish children with normal inteUigence, the rates are 10 to 26 per 10,000 while among those with mild mental retardation the rate is about 0.4...