Active clinical trials for "Autistic Disorder"

In the proposed study, the investigators would like to investigate the emotion regulation (ER) strategies children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) demonstrate, and the influence parents have on their children's ER. More specifically, the investigators would like to examine what are the ER mechanisms that parents use, what mechanisms of self regulation children with autism internalize, and how parents support and improve the ER capabilities of their child with ASD. These will be studied in a behavioral level, using micro-analysis of parent-child interaction, and in a physiological level, using indexes of stress control and affiliation. In addition, in order for parental ER support to be effective, it is important to consider more innate neuro-developmental difficulties children with ASD demonstrate that strongly affect their ability to regulate themselves. These include sensory regulation difficulties, temperament, attention disorders and poor executive functioning. Hypotheses: ER strategies used by children with ASD will be more poorly developed and less effective, compared to those of children in the control groups. Difficult temperament and sensory regulation difficulties will hamper ER in children with ASD. ER strategies of parents of children with ASD will be more poorly developed and less effective than those of parents in the control groups. Good parental self-ER and parental attunement to the child will be predictive of improved ER in children with ASD, and in parent-child synchrony, both in the behavioral and in the physiological levels.

The primary objective of this work will first to characterize in typical childhood, visual exploratory behavior and pupillary response associated with salience of human social stimuli (faces and body movements), and then to evaluate these markers in children with autism. The second objective of this work will be to achieve in a population of children with autism a longitudinal evaluation of these markers during development and therapeutics.

Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are highly debilitating developmental syndromes which core feature is social and communications disorders. Motor skill impairments are frequently described in autism, but few studies have addressed the question of their origin and their specificity. Furthermore, it is not clear whether motor problems encountered in autism are related to dyspraxia, or if they present with specific features. This project aims at deciphering the origin of motor problems encountered by children who grow-up with autism in order to propose early interventions that could influence the other developmental trajectories, such as the social one. Brain dynamics during sensori-motor learning is explored by applying magnetoencephalography (MEG) during the Bimanual Load-Lifting paradigm. Different motor processes namely: proprioceptive monitoring, use and update of a sensori-motor representation, anticipatory executive control will be correlated to brain oscillation modulation, both topographically and temporally. Two groups of children (aged between 7 and 12) are compared: a group of children with ASD and a control group of typically developing children.

The objective of this study is to examine the significance of knowledge of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and early intensive behavioral intervention, as well as trust in EIBI, adequate assessment of EIBI quality, and EIBI supervision on EIBI intervention outcome in ASD.

The research aims at clarifying the impact of autism on personal identity in adulthood. Two studies will be made in order to compare adults with autistic spectrum disorders without intellectual deficiency and controls. In the first study (Study A), the investigators will ask subjects to tell autobiographical memories and to specify their characteristics by answering focused questions. In the second study (Study B), the investigators will ask subjects to say the self statements which define them. Then, subjects will have to tell and to specify the characteristics of the autobiographical memories linked to these self statements.

The study aims to replicate and clarify a recently observed phenomenon whereby individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) switch between options in a repeated task to a greater extent than healthy controls do. In a meta-analysis a large effect size was found (.37) yet because the effect was noisy in different studies it was not statistically significant. The investigators seek to first examine a very large population through an Internet mediated platform. The sample size will be about the size of all of the previous studies that examined this issue together. Secondly, the investigators wish to understand the discrepancy between this choice switching phenomenon and the recorded tendency of ASD individuals to avoid changing choices. First, the investigators will administer the task in which the effect was found (the Iowa Gambling task) for a longer duration than previously and evaluate whether ASD individuals show increased choice switching in the first blocks of trials but reduced switching following more experience. Secondly, the investigators will administer an additional block of trials without feedback in which participants will not be able to go through a learning process. The investigators predict that this will reduce (and possible flip) the tendency of individuals with ASD to switch choices more often.

The aim of the study is to compare application of sealants together with fluoride varnishes versus only fluoride varnishes in preventing caries lesions development in the occlusal surface of first permanent molars of children with ASDs.

The objective of this study is to prospectively examine the preoperative anxiety scores of ASD patients in an adaptive sensory environment. Additionally, the investigators aim to determine the relationship of severity of sensory integration in ASD patients and their preoperative anxiety scores. The study will also study the family satisfaction with tailored care of their ASD child in the peri-operative environment.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represent a rapidly growing, high-priority clinical population highlighted by the NIMH and Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee due, in part, because they have multiple service needs including access to effective mental health treatment given high rates of psychiatric comorbidities. Pediatric primary care is a critical and ongoing point of health care access for children with ASD and thus represents an ideal setting for identification of mental health service needs and appropriate linkage to care. The proposed study will use implementation science theory and methods and a research-community partnership approach to: 1) identify targets to improve mental health screening and linkage to mental health services in primary care for children with ASD, 2) adapt integrated care procedures into "Access To Tailored Autism INtegrated Care," ATTAIN, to facilitate identification of mental health problems and linkage to evidence-based care for youth with ASD, and 3) conduct an open trial feasibility pilot test of ATTAIN in pediatric primary care.

The project's significance includes a big cohort of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), originality/novelty (new approaches and technologies including next-generation sequencing, multi-echo functional MRI, metabolomics, microbiomics, and machine learning), and the integration of multi-dimentional measures. With the accomplishment of this project, we will establish the most comprehensive ASD bio-bank in Asia, develop ASD NGS panel, identify several ASD biomarkers, publish at least 15 SCI papers in total, and in the end, have patents registration and technology transfer of our precise objective, automated assessment system for ASD. Our findings will further advance our understanding of ASD, ultimately contribute to the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of ASD, and be the first step of precise medicine for ASD.