It has long been established that psychiatric disorders have a genetic component. In the early days of genetic research, twin and family studies were used to estimate heritability (the proportion of variance explained by genetic factors). The Psychiatric Genetics Consortium has recently published a paper in Nature Genetics to assess the heritability and co-inheritability (relationship between [read the full story…]
Self-injurious behaviour (SIB) usually directly results in physical harm to an individual. Examples include hand biting, head slapping, picking at skin, gouging or striking the body or eating inedible material. Some researchers have begun to include stereotypy or repetitive movements in a definition of self-injurious behaviour, even if they do not result on tissue damage.. [read the full story…]
There is a body of literature looking at parental stress for parents of children with disabilities, but the researchers in this Canadian study were interested in looking specifically at a comparison of parental stress for parents of children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and those with children with autism spectrum disorder. They reported the [read the full story…]
Given that autism spectrum disorders are characterised by deficits in social reciprocity and communication, there is a school of thought that suggests that exploiting the emotional aspects of human-dog relationships may hold potential to overcome some difficulties of people with ASD to relate and interact effectively with others. The authors of this review set out [read the full story…]
The prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders has risen dramatically in the last thirty years, with recent estimates suggesting that 1 in 88 children in the United States have an autistic spectrum disorder. This increasing prevalence could simply be due to changes in the diagnosis of such disorders and so be of little interest. However, there [read the full story…]
The authors of this qualitative study were interested in looking at the experiences of growing up with a brother or sister with an autism spectrum disorder from the perspective of their siblings. What they did was carry out a number of semi-structured interviews with 12 typically developing adolescents who had a brother with an autism [read the full story…]
Quality of life is becoming a common outcome in the reporting of trials. The authors of this literature review were interested to look systematically at the use of quality life as an outcome in pharmacological research on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Currently, the most frequently used outcome measures in such trials are measures of changes in [read the full story…]
The authors of this study were interested in looking at support to adults with autism spectrum disorder in staffed housing services. Their focus was on looking at whether diagnostic congregation, or grouping people with similar diagnoses, was prevalent in services and if so, whether it had any impact on outcomes. They worked with 157 adults [read the full story…]
The National Autistic Society describe social stories as short descriptions of a particular situation, event or activity, which include specific information about what to expect in that situation and why. The authors of this study set out to look at the effectiveness of Social Stories with four adults with learning disabilities and social communication impairments said [read the full story…]
People with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders may also have mental health problems. There is little in the literature on the mental health needs of such adults. The researchers in this study were interested in developing the evidence base to enable a clearer understanding of the kinds of service responses that might be needed. [read the full story…]
