View clinical trials related to Autistic Disorder.
Filter by:The purpose of this randomized withdrawal study is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of memantine compared with placebo in pediatric patients with autism, Asperger's Disorder, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
The study aims to investigate whether neuropsychological function (particularly cognitive flexibility and executive function), functional (assessed by resting functional MRI, rfMRI) and structural connectivity (assessed by DSI), and electrophysiological function (assessed by event-related potential [ERP]: mismatch negativity, MMN and P50) can be effective cognitive endophenotypes (biomarkers) for Autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
This study will examine the efficacy of a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) program for children with anxiety and autism spectrum disorders.
Due to the considerable prevalence of anxiety in youth with autism spectrum disorders, this study seeks to establish the efficacy of a modified cognitive behavioral therapy protocol in 50 adolescents versus other available treatment options.
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).
The purpose of this study is to identify biomarkers in this subset of autism patients, design a protein based assay system for screening serum for these biomarkers and confirm that these serum antibodies are still present at one year's time.
Primary: to investigate tolerability of interventional high dose Vitamin D3 supplementation, titrated to reach serum levels near the high end of the reference range (30-100 ng/ml), in vitamin D deficient pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) patients. The study will determine if initial safety and effect estimates predict that a double blind randomized control trial (RCT) with a larger set of patients will be worthwhile in the localization of this treatment aimed at improving the symptoms of ASDs. Exploratory: to determine efficacy of high dose D3 replacement for improvement in the core symptoms of autism, including sociability, eye contact, anger outbursts, stimming behavior, and sleep, as determined by parental and clinical evaluation scales.
This project will address a major challenge to the field of autism research: improving expressive communication in children with autism who have reached school age but have not acquired functional spoken language (non-verbal school aged children with autism; NVSACA). Fifteen children who completed the RO1 ICAN intervention (NCT01018407) at the Kennedy Krieger site and follow-up testing but continue to have minimal functional spoken language will be participants in this study. After eligibility is established, participants will be randomly assigned to a baseline duration of one week, two weeks or three weeks before the start of active treatment. Once the baseline duration is completed, participants begin active treatment one hour of intervention three days per week in the participants' school setting. In month 2, weekly teacher trainings begin. In month 5, weekly parent trainings begin to improve the child's generalization of skills and teach parents the strategies implemented in their child's treatment. Post-baseline and post-treatment assessments will be completed in the lab at a time that is convenient for the participants' families.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a highly hereditary neuropsychiatric disorder. In children and adolescents worldwide, the prevalence of ASD is estimated at 0.6%. Understanding the biological mechanism of this disorder could potentially facilitate prompt, accurate and personalized therapy. The dysfunction of fronto-temporal circuitry may explain language impairment in ASD. In addition, pieces of evidence suggest that the abnormality of the cortico-striato-thalamic circuitry might be related to social deficits. However, very little is known how changes in these two circuitries are related to variation in genotypes. Previous reports on ASD using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have demonstrated alteration of brain structure. Recent advance in neuroimaging has shown that structural connectivity of a specific circuitry is superior to regional analysis in terms of higher penetrance of genetic effects and better account for behavioral variance. Therefore, it is plausible that connectivity imaging may serve as effective endophenotypes that link clinical manifestation (phenotypes) and the biological variables (genotypes). In the past five years, our lab has established world leading diffusion spectrum imaging techniques, and applied the techniques to clinical studies on ASD, schizophrenia, stroke and epilepsy. The clinical experience and technical strengths provide a strong basis for us to extend to imaging genetics, aiming to determine effective endophenotypes of ASD. Therefore, the goal of this project is to validate structural connectivity of fronto-temporal and cortico-striato-thalamic circuitries as effective imaging endophenotypes of ASD. Specifically, the investigators will achieve the goal through a series of validation. First, the investigators will demonstrate that structural connectivities in the two targeted circuitries are indeed different among groups of patients with ASD, unaffected siblings, and neurotypicals. Second, the investigators will demonstrate in neurotypicals and unaffected siblings that the altered structural connectivities related to social and language impairments are indeed different in carriers of risk genes, i.e. CNTNAP2 and SLC25A12, respectively. Last, the investigators will demonstrate in all participants that the altered structural connectivities are associated with the corresponding behavioral variances in social and language function. This two-year project is a cohort study consisting of three groups, namely patient, unaffected siblings, and control groups matched in age, gender and handedness. The patient and sibling groups consist of 20 boys each, age 10-15 years old, and the control group consists of 40 boys. The examination includes behavior assessment (IQ test, neuropsychological and clinical assessment), MRI study (structure MRI and diffusion spectrum imaging for structural connectivity) and genome scan(specifically candidate genes related to language function, i.e. SLC25A12, and to social function, i.e. CNTNAP2). In conclusion, this is the first cohort project on imaging genetics in Taiwan. The success of this project will facilitate the progress of translational neuroscience in Taiwan. The methodology of validating endophenotype will be readily extended to other psychiatric diseases.
The CLICK-EAST research project is an investigation of the efficacy of a computer based learning programme which aims to teach the fundamental components of social attention to young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). "Social attention" describes the process of choosing to look at or listen to social information in the world, normally in preference to any other available information. Social information normally refers to people: for example, we notice human voices more than birdsong or traffic noise, even if the latter is louder. As a rule, children with ASD are less likely to prioritise this kind of social information. This is thought to have a significant effect on their development and behaviour. For example, a child who doesn't listen to what his parents say may be very slow to learn language, and may also fail to follow important instructions. Our goal is to create a new learning programme, in the form of an enjoyable computer game, which encourages children to practise the skills of looking at and listening to people, despite the presence of distracting information. The investigators will develop the game with the input of an advisory group of parents and teachers of children with ASD as well as some young adults with an ASD diagnosis. Then they will perform a trial of the game with a group of preschoolers with ASD and their families, in order to determine whether the game is having a positive effect on the children's abilities.