Background: Catatonia is a unique syndrome characterized by specific motor signs, at times life-threatening when aggravated by autonomic dysfunction and fever, yet treatable if recognized early. Catatonia occurs in patients with various disorders including autism and related developmental disorders. Sometimes catatonia develops after severe psychological trauma, supporting the view that it is a...

OBJECTIVE To review existing data on early signs of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and on how these disorders can be distinguished from other atypical patterns of development, and to describe a developmental surveillance approach that family physicians can use to ensure that children with these diagnoses are detected as early as possible. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE MEDLINE was searched from Janua...

Autism is one of the disorders that falls under the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It is a disorder which can change the entire life of not just the individual with the disorder, but also people around them. This paper talks about the problems faced by autistic children. Current research in this field dealing with solutions and therapies which aid children with cognitive disabilities, especi...

Autistic regression consists of paucity of social and emotional reciprocity, disorders of language and communication, and stereotyped behaviors that are noted after a period of normal or near-normal development for one or two years. We report a case who presented autistic regression symptoms but was improved with comprehensive multi-modal treatment approach in motor, language, and social domain...

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of developmental disorders caused by environmental and genetic factors. Diagnosis is based on behavioral and developmental signs detected before 3 years of age with no reliable biological marker. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential use of a 2D NMR-based approach to express the global biochemical signature of autistic individuals co...

Autism in most diagnostic systems is classified among the developmental disorders. This is appropriate in almost all cases, even though the occasional appearance of fullblown autistic syndromes in adolescents (Gillberg, 1986) (and even adults; Gillberg, 1991) highlights the need to keep an open mind about the biological basis for autistic symptoms being a priori linked with developmental proces...

One accepted and straightforward approach to understand the genesis of social cognition – as of any particular human neoformation – is to look for specific developmental disorders in the hope to find clear double dissociations. In this regard, contrasting subjects with autistic spectrum disorders on the one hand and subjects with Williams syndrome on the other has gained large acceptance. Subje...

Studies have identified structural abnormalities in areas of the autistic brain, with a pattern suggesting that a neurodevelopmental anomaly took place. Neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), which is involved in development of the central nervous system, was previously shown to be decreased in the serum of autistic individuals. In the present study, we measured NCAM protein in the sera from con...

There is accumulating evidence that autistic-related traits in the general population lie on a continuum, with autism spectrum disorders representing the extreme end of this distribution. Here, we tested the hypothesis of a possible relationship between autistic traits and brain morphometry in the general population. Participants completed the short autism-spectrum quotient-questionnaire (AQ); ...