Active clinical trials for "Autism Spectrum Disorder"

An unpublished study conducted at Toulouse University Hospital revealed that 30% of implanted children with Autism Spectrum Disorders abandon their implant, while 70% of them keep it. The aim of this study is to evaluate the causes of this disparity, which is much greater than in children with cochlear implants without associated Autism Spectrum Disorders. Our problem is as follows: do the sensory hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity of deaf children with Autism Spectrum Disorders have an effect on the expected results after a cochlear implantation from a language and auditory reaction point of view?

The investigators designed the Child-Caregiver Interaction Observation Scale（CCIOS）to assess social communication behaviors, stereotyped behaviors for children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD) via a 20-min video of interactions between a caregiver and a child. The original CCIOS coding scheme consists 23 items. The score range for each item is 0-4, with higher scores being indicative of more atypical behavior. The aim of the study is to determine items for inclusion in the final CCIOS coding scheme through exploration of item correlations, establish the cutoff score of CCIOS for ASD and evaluate the reliability and validity of CCIOS. The reliability evaluation include test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability. DSM-5 criterion is used as the gold standard. Validity is assessed by determining the correlation and consistency between CCIOS and DSM-5 criterion.

The purpose of this exploratory sequential mixed methods study is to develop and refine a parent-mediated mobile app intervention focused on improving the motor outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participating in an adapted horseback riding program.

The purpose of this pilot project is to evaluate the feasibility of a mentorship program for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data will be collected from adolescents with ASD and their parents/guardians. Study findings will be used to inform further development of the mentoring program for individuals with ASD.

The significance of this project is the first longitudinal study to investigate the changes of neurocognitive functions of children and adolescents with ASD and to identify the potential neuroimaging endophenotype (biomarkers) for ASD in Asian with advanced imaging technique (Tract-based automatic analysis, TBAA; multi-echo resting-state fMRI in addition to single-echo resting-state fMRI). The success of this project will fill the gap of our understanding of longitudinal changes of brain function by neuropsychological and imaging approaches of ASD in Han Chinese in Taiwan, and is anticipated to facilitate the progress of translational research in ASD.

The purpose of this study is to continue to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of Magnetic EEG/ECG-Guided Resonance Therapy (MeRT) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). No active MeRT treatment will be performed in this study.

The purpose of this study is to determine if caregivers of children with a developmental delay experience a decrease in stress by participating in a meditation/cognitive training protocol.

The primary purpose of the present study is to evaluate the diagnostic validity of eye tracking measurements acquired during viewing of socially-relevant stimuli in predicting ASD diagnosis. The secondary purpose was to explore the potential prognostic value of eye tracking measures through cross-sectional associations with non-verbal cognitive ability. Deficits in eye gaze are a hallmark sign of autism. A large and growing body of research supports the ability of eye-tracking based measurements to sensitively discriminate individuals with ASD and healthy participants. These investigations have identified that the core deficit in autism as disruption of social attention, reflecting an inability to appropriately engage and track socially- and emotionally-relevant aspects of the visual world. Thus, eye gaze tracking, acquired during viewing of socially-relevant stimuli, may be a useful approach to identifying objective markers of ASD. Eye tracking also carries the advantages of being less intrusive and expensive than MRI and genetic testing and specifically focuses on the core neurobehavioral characteristics of ASD - abnormalities in social attention. After diagnosis of ASD, key clinical tasks in young children involve determining an accurate prognosis and tracking the progress of early interventions. Currently, the only prognostic indicators are clinical observations (subjective and expensive) and non-verbal cognitive ability testing (difficult to acquire, time-consuming, unavailable in many settings). Recently, eye gaze tracking was found to predict functional outcomes. Thus, in addition to being an objective marker for ASD, eye tracking measurements have potential to be useful for predicting cognitive and functional outcomes. Similarly, the only available methods for tracking treatment progress are parental reports (highly subjective), clinical observations (subjective and expensive), and cognitive measurements (expensive and unavailable in many settings. This study will evaluate, using cross-section data, the potential for eye tracking data to serve as a proxy for non-verbal cognitive ability scores in determining prognosis for ASD-affected children. Additionally, this study will evaluate the test re-test reliability of eye tracking parameters that can potentially be used to track treatment progress.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of and to clinically validate the Autism Behavior Inventory (ABI) in measuring clinical symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared with other gold standard measures.

The purpose of this study is to identify psychopathology (psychiatric symptoms) that can differentiate between Schizotypal Disorder (SD) and Asperger Syndrome (normal IQ, no language impairment Autism Spectrum Disorder) (AS) in young adults. With our present knowledge, the differentiation between AS and SD can be difficult, as they both present with social difficulties, odd (but not psychotic) behaviour, and a 'feeling of not being as everyone else'. Studies suggest that adults with AS symptoms are either overlooked, or diagnosed within the schizophrenia spectrum in Adult Psychiatry. A 'correct' diagnosis is important, as it is the first step towards the most optimal plan, treatment and rehabilitation for the patient. The only way to diagnose psychiatric illness is the description of present psychopathology. To identify symptoms that can differentiate between the two disorders, we will use semi-structured interviews to explore present psychopathology in young adults with typical symptoms of SD and AS respectively, with special focus on presence of alterations in self-experience. Alterations in self-experience are typical for the schizophrenia spectrum, and are therefore not thought to be equally present in AS and SD. The hypotheses are that the total level of altered experiences is higher in SD, than in AS, and with a different pattern of altered experiences in SD than in AS. If the hypotheses are true, an examination of altered self-experience will be valuable to aid clinical differentiation between the two disorders.