Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Carla Lintas, Roberto Sacco, Alessia Azzara, Ilaria Cassano, Fiorella Gurrieri
Summary: The advancement of NGS technologies has significantly improved ASD genetic diagnosis, leading to the discovery of many new causative genes. A recent study revealed 30 novel genes, with 6 of them providing important clinical and molecular data that can aid clinical geneticists in prioritizing and interpreting genetic tests. This new information may help in associating genetic test results with phenotypes for making a final diagnosis.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Developmental
Tobias Banaschewski, Oliviero Bruni, Joaquin Fuentes, Catherine Mary Hill, Allan Hvolby, Maj-Britt Posserud, Carmen Schroder
Summary: Between 50-80% of children with ASD experience insomnia, and experts recommend screening for insomnia and seeking specialist help when comorbid sleep disorders are suspected. The expert panel has developed tools for screening and monitoring to standardize practices, improve care, and enhance the well-being of children with ASD and their families.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nurkhaniza Kaman, Azlina Ishak, Juliawati Muhammad
Summary: This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and associated factors among caregivers toward children with ASD. It found that the majority of caregivers had good knowledge and attitudes toward ASD. When managing children with ASD, the age and sex of the caregiver, the position of the ASD child among siblings, and the presence of other learning disorders in the family should be taken into consideration.
Article
Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture
Fangyu Shi, Wei Sun, Huiyu Duan, Xiaotian Liu, Menghan Hu, Wei Wang, Guangtao Zhai
Summary: This study established an ASD painting database, analyzed the unique characteristics of paintings by children with ASD, and trained a classifier using extracted features as a potential screening tool for autism spectrum disorder.
Article
Medical Informatics
Md Delowar Hossain, Muhammad Ashad Kabir, Adnan Anwar, Md Zahidul Islam
Summary: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder often characterized by sensory issues. Machine learning based intelligent diagnosis has evolved to complement traditional clinical methods for improved diagnosis. Experimental results show that multilayer perceptron (MLP) classifier outperforms other benchmark techniques for ASD diagnosis.
HEALTH INFORMATION SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS
(2021)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Christine F. Stafford, Pedro A. Sanchez-Lara
Summary: Genetics play a key role in the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and genetic testing can guide clinical management and medical interventions, making it important for all ASD patients to have access to genetic evaluation.
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Jade Horsnell, Stephen Mangar, Dagmara Dimitriou, Elizabeth J. Halstead
Summary: This study investigated parental experiences and motivations for using melatonin to manage sleep disturbances in their autistic children. Results showed that some parents believed melatonin improved their child's sleep, while others reported limited or diminishing effects. Suggestions were made for healthcare professionals and families to establish clear guidelines and manage expectations when using melatonin.
Article
Psychiatry
Jennifer Jane Newson, Vladyslav Pastukh, Tara C. Thiagarajan
Summary: This study quantitatively analyzed symptom heterogeneity and disorder comorbidity in a sample of 107,349 adult individuals from 8 English-speaking countries. The results showed a continuum of symptom prevalence and challenges with DSM-5 disorder labels, with many patients not fitting into any diagnostic criteria. There was a high diversity of symptom profiles both within and between disorders, highlighting the need for disorder agnostic approaches to symptom profiling.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Silvia Perzolli, Arianna Bentenuto, Giulio Bertamini, Paola Venuti
Summary: This study compared the interactive behaviors of fathers and mothers with their children with ASD during play activities. The results showed that mothers engaged more in symbolic play, while fathers displayed higher levels of exploratory play. However, child cognitive functioning only impacted maternal play, not paternal play characteristics.
Review
Neurosciences
Silvia Perzolli, Arianna Bentenuto, Giulio Bertamini, Simona de Falco, Paola Venuti
Summary: Studies have shown that fathers play an important role in the development of children with ASD and should be included in treatment interventions; however, current interventions do not fully take into account fathers' characteristics and needs. A systematic review identified various interactive modalities between fathers and children with ASD, providing insight for personalized intervention strategies. Despite limitations in sample size and measures used, characteristic behaviors of the dyad were revealed to be beneficial for targeted interventions.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Jun Wang, Fengyexin Zhang, Xiuyi Jia, Xin Wang, Han Zhang, Shihui Ying, Qian Wang, Jun Shi, Dinggang Shen
Summary: The study introduces label distribution learning (LDL) into multi-class ASD classification and proposes a new LDL-CSCS model. Experimental results show that this method has superior classification performance in ASD diagnosis.
MEDICAL IMAGE ANALYSIS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ava E. Axelrod, Jacob M. Hooker
Summary: The idea of Autism Spectrum Disorder implies the heterogeneity of autism, but research often adopts reductionist frameworks. The neurodiversity movement offers insights into the wide range of autistic experiences, which may inform how we should approach research questions.
ACS CHEMICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Genetics & Heredity
Mengyu Lim, Alessandro Carollo, Dagmara Dimitriou, Gianluca Esposito
Summary: This study used document co-citation analysis to systematically review literature on ASD genetic research from 2018 to 2022 and identified 12 major clusters representing different sub-topics in the field.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Giordano D'Urso, Elena Toscano, Veronica Sanges, Anne Sauvaget, Christine E. Sheffer, Maria Pia Riccio, Roberta Ferrucci, Felice Iasevoli, Alberto Priori, Carmela Bravaccio, Andrea de Bartolomeis
Summary: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the cerebellar lobe shows potential in reducing the severity of symptoms in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this pilot study, 20 sessions of cathodal stimulation resulted in a 25% reduction in global severity of symptoms, with improvements in multiple subscales. The treatment was well-tolerated without serious adverse events.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Rana Fetit, Robert F. Hillary, David J. Price, Stephen M. Lawrie
Summary: Post-mortem studies of individuals with autism have revealed consistent abnormalities in brain tissue, such as reduced minicolumn numbers and aberrant myelination. Transcriptomics consistently implicate abnormalities in synaptic, metabolic, proliferation, apoptosis, and immune pathways in autism pathogenesis. Larger studies are needed to further investigate these findings and potential treatments.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Robert F. Krueger, Roman Kotov, David Watson, Miriam K. Forbes, Nicholas R. Eaton, Camilo J. Ruggero, Leonard J. Simms, Thomas A. Widiger, Thomas M. Achenbach, Bo Bach, R. Michael Bagby, Marina A. Bornovalova, William T. Carpenter, Michael Chmielewski, David C. Cicero, Lee Anna Clark, Christopher Conway, Barbara DeClercqq, Colin G. DeYoung, Anna R. Docherty, Laura E. Drislane, Michael B. First, Kelsie T. Forbush, Michael Hallquist, John D. Haltigan, Christopher J. Hopwood, Masha Y. Ivanova, Katherine G. Jonas, Robert D. Latzman, Kristian E. Markon, Joshua D. Miller, Leslie C. Morey, Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt, Johan Ormel, Praveetha Patalay, Christopher J. Patrick, Aaron L. Pincus, Darrel A. Regier, Ulrich Reininghaus, Leslie A. Rescorla, Douglas B. Samuel, Martin Sellbom, Alexander J. Shackman, Andrew Skodol, Tim Slade, Susan C. South, Matthew Sunderland, Jennifer L. Tackett, Noah C. Venables, Irwin D. Waldman, Monika A. Waszczuk, Mark H. Waugh, Aidan G. C. Wright, David H. Zald, Johannes Zimmermann
Summary: Contemporary efforts to classify psychopathology quantitatively have shown that psychopathology is generally more dimensional than categorical, leading to the formation of a hierarchical structure that addresses comorbidity issues.
ANNALES MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGIQUES
(2021)
Editorial Material
Psychiatry
Eiko I. Fried, Ashley L. Greene, Nicholas R. Eaton
Article
Neurosciences
Juan Manuel Mayor Torres, Tessa Clarkson, Kathryn M. Hauschild, Christian C. Luhmann, Matthew D. Lerner, Giuseppe Riccardi
Summary: This study utilized deep convolutional neural networks to investigate whether facial emotion information is encoded in the neural signal of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results revealed that facial emotion information is indeed encoded in the neural signal of individuals with ASD. Therefore, the difficulties observed in facial emotion recognition tasks for individuals with ASD may arise from difficulties in decoding or deployment of facial emotion information within the neural signal. This research has important implications for guiding interventions.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY-COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Erin J. Libsack, Elizabeth Trimber, Kathryn M. Hauschild, Greg Hajcak, James C. McPartland, Matthew D. Lerner
Summary: Impairments in theory of mind among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are highly heterogeneous, with factors such as the late positive complex (LPC) potentially explaining differences in ToM performance.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Psychology, Clinical
Erin J. Libsack, Elliot Gavin Keenan, Caroline E. Freden, Julianne Mirmina, Nathaniel Iskhakov, Darsiya Krishnathasan, Matthew D. Lerner
Summary: The phenomenon of behaving in ways inconsistent with the presence of autism (PAN) has attracted increasing attention in scientific literature, with a relatively balanced mix of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies. Studies included a higher proportion of autistic participants, with good documentation of participant gender and age but limited information on race or ethnicity. Additionally, measurements related to internalizing symptoms, often associated with PAN, were reported in a small percentage of studies.
CLINICAL CHILD AND FAMILY PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Hung-Wei Bernie Chen, Erin S. Gardner, Tessa Clarkson, Nicholas R. Eaton, Jillian Lee Wiggins, Ellen Leibenluft, Johanna M. Jarcho
Summary: Anxiety symptoms are related to victimization, while irritability symptoms are associated with both perpetration and victimization. Youths with more severe irritability and lower levels of anxiety are more likely to engage in perpetration.
CHILD PSYCHIATRY & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
David Watson, Holly F. Levin-Aspenson, Monika A. Waszczuk, Christopher C. Conway, Tim Dalgleish, Michael N. Dretsch, Nicholas R. Eaton, Miriam K. Forbes, Kelsie T. Forbush, Kelsey A. Hobbs, Giorgia Michelini, Brady D. Nelson, Martin Sellbom, Tim Slade, Susan C. South, Matthew Sunderland, Irwin Waldman, Michael Witthoeft, Aidan G. C. Wright, Roman Kotov, Robert F. Krueger
Summary: The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) provides a quantitative approach to address limitations of traditional mental disorder diagnoses. It suggests an emotional dysfunction superspectrum, which includes the internalizing and somatoform spectra. These spectra consist of dimensions found in multiple diagnostic categories and are linked to individual differences in negative affect. The evidence shows shared genetic diatheses, environmental risk factors, cognitive and affective difficulties, neural substrates, childhood temperamental antecedents, and treatment response within the superspectrum. Compared to traditional diagnoses, the internalizing and somatoform spectra demonstrate improved utility in terms of reliability, explanatory and predictive power, and clinical applicability.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Colin G. DeYoung, Roman Kotov, Robert F. Krueger, David C. Cicero, Christopher C. Conway, Nicholas R. Eaton, Miriam K. Forbes, Michael N. Hallquist, Katherine G. Jonas, Robert D. Latzman, Craig Rodriguez-Seijas, Camilo J. Ruggero, Leonard J. Simms, Irwin D. Waldman, Monika A. Waszczuk, Thomas A. Widiger, Aidan G. C. Wright
Summary: In this commentary, the authors address questions and misconceptions raised by Haeffel et al. regarding the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). They explain the descriptive and atheoretical nature of the system, its organization based on patterns of covariation among signs and symptoms of psychopathology, and its falsifiability and responsiveness to data. The authors also discuss the external validity and utility of HiTOP in scientific and clinical settings, as well as its current use in clinics.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Ashley L. Greene, Ashley L. Watts, Miriam K. Forbes, Roman Kotov, Robert F. Krueger, Nicholas R. Eaton
Summary: This study aims to provide applied researchers with a clear roadmap for evaluating latent factor structures and discusses the challenges in both confirmatory and exploratory factor analytic scenarios. The similarities between bifactor CFA and EFA models are illustrated through an applied example and the implications for psychopathology structural models are discussed.
PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Riley McDanal, Jessica L. Schleider, Kathryn R. Fox, Nicholas R. Eaton
Summary: Youth loneliness is a risk factor for adverse psychosocial outcomes, and LGBTQ+ youths may be at higher risk due to minority stressors. Our study confirms the structure of the UCLA Loneliness Scale and shows that loneliness scores can be meaningfully compared across gender and sexual identities.
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Chelsea M. Cooper, Tamara Rosen, Hyunsik Kim, Nicholas R. Eaton, Elizabeth Cohn, Amy Drahota, Lauren J. Moskowitz, Matthew D. Lerner, Connor M. Kerns
Summary: Understanding providers' familiarity with intervention practices is crucial for optimizing care for autistic youth. Factors such as discipline, experience, and client characteristics can predict differences in knowledge. It is important to reduce disparities in care.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Andres De Los Reyes, Mo Wang, Matthew D. Lerner, Bridget A. Makol, Olivia M. Fitzpatrick, John R. Weisz
Summary: Researchers use reports from multiple informants to assess youth mental health, but there are often discrepancies between these reports. These discrepancies should be treated as important information for understanding youth mental health, but historically they have been treated as measurement confounds or biases. We propose a new paradigm, CONTEXT, to optimize measurement validity in youth mental health research.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Bori Jung, Hyunsik Kim
Summary: Transdiagnostic factors have been shown to predict the continuity of comorbidity classes over time, indicating a complex and uncertain pattern of symptom manifestation in psychopathology.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Hyunsik Kim, Michael G. Wheaton, Edna B. Foa, H. Blair Simpson
Summary: Exposure and response prevention (EX/RP) is a recommended psychotherapy for OCD, but its effectiveness varies among patients. This study aimed to examine the trajectories of symptom change in OCD patients receiving EX/RP and identify predictors of treatment response. Data from four clinical trials were analyzed using growth mixture modeling, revealing three distinct trajectory classes: dramatic progress, moderate progress, and little to no progress. Baseline avoidance and transdiagnostic internalizing factor levels were found to predict membership in the little to no progress class. These findings have implications for identifying non-responders and personalizing treatment for OCD.
JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS
(2023)