Active clinical trials for "Autistic Disorder"

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the benefits of a program to develop self-determination in young adults with autism. Being self-determined means acting or causing things to happen in your life. It involves deciding, acting and believing in one-self. The main question this clinical trial aims to answer is: Is the program developed useful to improve self-determination of young adults with autism? Participants will receive a group intervention to support the development of their self-determination-related skills during 20 sessions (1 session/week). Researchers will compare the self-determination outcomes between the group that receives the intervention and another group that is in a waiting list (and will receive the intervention later) to see if the changes are due to the intervention.

The purpose of this study is to try to treat bowel movement (BM) accidents differently with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study will use over-the-counter (OTC) medications to evoke predictable bowel movements. This will make it possible for investigators to use certain strategies to reward BMs in the toilet. Independence will be increased by fading out the use of medications. The investigators will also train caregivers to implement the procedures.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether teaching Karate techniques training leads to reduction in communication deficit of children with autism spectrum disorders.

This pilot study is designed to investigate the feasibility of comparing a standard behavioral intervention and an innovative intervention that incorporates the use of a wireless moisture alarm in training children with autism how to independently use the toilet for urination. We hypothesize that the study protocol will be feasible, as measured through review of achieved recruitment targets, successful randomization, and >80% retention of subjects with com- plete data collection. Our second hypothesis is that therapists will deliver experimental and standard behavioral treatment intervention with ≥80% fidelity and parents in both intervention groups will adhere to the intervention with ≥80% fidelity. A secondary aim of this study is to examine trends in outcome data by conducting a small RCT (N = 30) of wireless moisture alarm and standard behavioral toilet training, with the hypothesis that the moisture alarm intervention will result in fewer toileting accidents, a higher rate of toileting success and greater parental satisfaction.

70 children and adults with autism spectrum disorders will be enrolled in a 1-year, single-blind treatment study. Assessments will be conducted at the beginning and end of the study, including measurements of nutritional, metabolic, and digestive status and assessments of autism severity and overall functioning. Half of the participants will be randomized into a treatment study, and half will be randomized to no changes in their current treatments. Treatments will be added in a sequential manner over 12 months, including vitamin/minerals, essential fatty acids, carnitine, digestive enzymes, and healthy, gluten-free, casein-free diets. A dedicated team of nutritionists, nurses, and physicians will support and monitor the participants throughout the study. A group of 50 neurotypical children and adults, of similar age and gender, will be included for comparison.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled 16-week trial investigators administered daily doses of either youths with autism spectrum disorders.ARA and DHA supplementation significantly improved communication as well as social withdrawal symptoms. This pilot study provides the first evidence that supplementation with larger ARA doses added to DHA improve impaired social interaction in youths with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial comparing a telephone based intervention (TCM) to usual care (UC). TCM will feature a registered nurse providing a series of phone calls to assist caregivers in learning and modifying behavioral strategies that may help young children with autism to sleep better. Objective (activity monitors) and subjective (rating scales) data will be collected by an independent research assistant at the end of the project. The investigators hypothesize that TCM improves sleep duration and decreases sleep problems relative to a usual care control condition (UC).

Complex diseases such as schizophrenia and autism are heterogeneous in clinical presentation and etiology. This high heterogeneity constitutes the challenges for the clinical diagnosis and etiological research, resulting in that the majority of research findings cannot be replicated in the independent samples. For the high comorbid rate between the diagnoses of schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and the shared neurocognitive deficits, genetic risks, and biological markers between the two disorders, a heterogeneity approach may probably be more promising than to arbitrarily split the two diagnostic categories apart or lump them together for etiological research. In schizophrenia, patients with a very early onset of disease and with preceding neurodevelopmental conditions may imply a different underlying etiology from those with typical onset and without neurodevelopmental conditions. Echoing the evidence that in early onset Parkinson's disease, PARK2 (encoding parkin protein) mutations are successfully reported to be as frequent as 49% with an autosomal-recessive mode of inheritance , representing a specific disease entity of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, it is critical to characterize the clinical phenotypes for this subpopulation of very early onset patients, including their clinical manifestation, disease course, and treatment response, as well as early developmental history and morphological characteristics. These may establish an important base for investigating the etiology and providing adequate clinical care for the heterogeneous syndrome of schizophrenia

The objective of the ELENA French Cohort is to study the developmental trajectories of children and adolescents with ASD and their risk or protective associated factors. This is an open, prospective and multicenter cohort study, including children and adolescents under 16 years of age with ASD recruited from services specialized in the assessment of developmental disorders.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a social initiation motivation intervention (SIMI) focused on training children with ASD to initiate to peers during structured play activities will result in more frequent initiations to typically developing peers during free play. The SIMI approach under investigation uses behavioral strategies based in Applied Behavior Analysis and Pivotal Response Treatment to motivate children with ASD to initiate to peers. Children with ASD will be randomly assigned to either the SIMI or a waiting list. Treatment will be provided for 8 weeks in the context of a weekly social skills group.