View clinical trials related to Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Filter by:When youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) transition from school to adult services, they fall off a "service cliff." To increase access to services, the investigators developed the ASSIST program, which teaches parents how to advocate for adult services on behalf of youth with ASD. In a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT: R34 MH104428), treatment group (versus control) participants demonstrated significantly improved knowledge of adult services, advocacy, and empowerment. Sons/daughters of treatment group participants had increased access to services. For advocacy services interventions like ASSIST to be equitable, they need to reach families who are at greatest risk for service disparities. Latinx youth with ASD are one such underserved population. Relative to White youth, Latinx youth with ASD receive significantly fewer post-secondary education, health, and employment services and face worse post-school outcomes. In addition to the barriers which hinder service access for all families, Latinx families face unique barriers to service access (e.g., language, cultural differences, citizenship, discrimination) making them a marginalized population. In this project, the investigators are adapting the ASSIST curriculum and related measures for Latinx parents of transition-aged youth with ASD. Specifically, the investigators will leverage ASSIST data and data from Latinx, non-ASSIST parents to inform adaptations to the ASSIST curriculum. The investigators will also conduct pre-testing and a cross-cultural adaptation process to revise the ASSIST measures for Latinx families. The investigators will test the adapted ASSIST curriculum with a randomized controlled trial to determine its feasibility, acceptability and efficacy on intervention targets (knowledge, advocacy, and empowerment) and outcome of interest (service access). This project is aligned with NIMH priorities by examining services from adolescence to adulthood (PA-21-199) and by adapting a program to improve mental health services for underserved populations NIMH 2020 Strategic plan). It is also responsive to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee core value of "equity" in reducing disparities with respect to cultural backgrounds. Further, if successful, it will be the first intervention to directly address service disparities for Latinx families of youth with ASD who are transitioning to adulthood.
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
In the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), medication is only an adjunct, and the main treatment modalities are education and behavioral therapy. People with autism incur huge medical and educational costs, which puts a great financial burden on families.Taurine is one of the abundant amino acids in tissues and organs, and plays a variety of physiological and pharmacological functions in nervous, cardiovascular, renal, endocrine and immune systems. A large number of studies have shown that taurine can improve cognitive function impairment under various physiological or pathological conditions through a variety of mechanisms, taurine can increase the abundance of beneficial bacteria in the intestine, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, and have a positive effect on intestinal homeostasis. This study intends to analyze the effect of taurine supplementation on ASD, and explore the possible mechanism by detecting intestinal symptoms, intestinal flora, markers of oxidative stress and clinical symptoms of ASD.
The purpose of the project is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment (I-Navigator ACT) for parents who experience stress, distress, depression or anxiety that may be associated with being a parent of a child with disabilities. The project consists of three studies: Study 1: An open feasibility trial in which parents participate in an individual, clinician-supported internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment. Study 2: A randomized controlled trial in which participants are randomly assigned either: 1. Navigator ACT group treatment, where parents participate in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group together with other parents, led by two group leaders, or 2. I-Navigator ACT internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment, where the parent participates on their own, coached by a clinician via a message function. Study 3: A qualitative study in which a smaller sample of parents from the open feasibility trial participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews take place after the parents have completed I-Navigator ACT. All three studies are conducted in a clinical health care context.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often accompanied by a variety of other symptoms, such as bipolar disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), etc. The behavioral and social complications often marginalize the population, impact on life satisfaction, undermined societal values that impact on economic and financial fairness, and so forth. Furthermore, persons with ASD are neurodiverse from standardized pharmacological and clinical cares, and are interpreted disadvantaged in the context of neurotypical treatments. The research protocol aims to differentiate the neuropharmacological implications of ASD from its behavioral and social implications. Such a differentiation is beneficial to the quality of care for neurodiverse population, both in terms of precision treatment in medical settings, and in terms of psychotherapeutic treatment efficacy in the interpretation of behavioral and social traits. The study protocol continues from the adverse event of the participant in NCT05711810 trial, after the positive immunological results in the NCT05839236 trial. The intervention medicine continues from Sertraline adjusted on the choice of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) in the previous two trials for complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) of the participant, and its combined used with Duloxetine in the choice of Selective Norephedrine Reuptake Inhibitor (SNRI) for norephedrine regulations. The hypothesized target is on the discrete psychiatric intervention centered approach to ASD treatment care. In the PRC where the study is being carried out, amphetamine class medicines are strictly prohibited and defined as illegal substances, regardless of their only proven effect for ASD patient care. Contributed by the sociostructural elements and necessities, black market amphetamine and ketamine have not only emerged in the regime for decades, but also have become a lucrative business. Their recreational uses are also sometimes accompanied by real necessities and needs; black markets cater to the needs but guidance on the usages is based on word-of-mouth stories without professional medical assistances. There is one case the Principal Investigator (PI) collected, that one person, possibly under depression contributed by PTSD, took relatively high dosage of amphetamine and went into a state of psychosis with overwhelming persecution mania. The study protocol, Psychiatric Orders in Psychoanalytic Treatment of ASD, is therefore designed for an evidence-based approach in treating complex psychiatric disorders with psychoanalytic guidance.
The objective of this study is to conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a 6-week mobile app-based intervention in empowering and supporting Chinese parents of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children through knowledge and skills transfer and mindfulness training. The investigators hypothesise that the app will be feasible and acceptable, and that there will be a greater reduction in parental stress and mood symptoms, and improvement of mindfulness attitude and parenting competence in parents with ASD children after the 6-week app-based intervention than the waitlist controls.
Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized fundamentally by social deficits. Emotional competence - the ability to express, recognize, understand, and regulate emotions - is a key aspect of social communication. Evidence suggests that the developmental trajectories of autistic children differ from that of neuro-typical children regarding their ability to process and recognize emotions from paralinguistic emotional facial, body language, and voice tone cues. They also have difficulty integrating these cues in context and lack in emotional language. Numerous approaches to teaching people with autism how to recognize and understand emotions have been tried, with recent increased interest in computer-based interventions (CBI). However, most of the research focused only on facial expressions, were limited to autistic children with no intellectual disabilities (ID); and showed limited generalization to real social settings. EmotiPlay, a computer-based intervention program, designed to enhance emotion recognition (ER) by addressing multiple modalities of emotional cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language), has shown good outcome when used at home by autistic children and no ID . However, the examination of generalization was partial and depended only on parental reports. The present study main goals are to: (1) Examine the adaptation and the integration of EmotiPlay into special education classrooms in regular schools. (2) Assess EmotiPlay's effect on emotional competence among autistic children at different functioning levels.
In Singapore, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is ranked number one in disease burden for children 0-14 years of age. The Child Development Unit at the National University Hospital serves 3000 children annually, of which 25-30% of children have been diagnosed with ASD. Therapist roles are to provide interim therapy for these children before entry into community-based Early Intervention Centres (EIPIC), which currently have waiting times of 6-9 months. Current limitations with interim care includes long wait times, high cost for families, lack of manpower and space to serve the patients, poor parental involvement due to their work commitments, parental difficulties attending frequent, needed, in-hospital therapy and difficulty generalizing patient treatment to the home/community setting (decreasing effectiveness). The proposed Telerehabilitation (also called Telerehab) initiative involves the use of video conferencing technology to help address the aforementioned deficits. Offering early intervention through Telerehab will enable previously unattainable benefits such as seeing the child in their home environment, allowing multiple caregivers to have access to the early intervention training, more frequent contact with families and the ability to trouble shoot real life difficulties in real time. The important advantages to the caregivers include less financial burden arising from time off from work and travel, more access to treatment over a longer period of time and ability to access a multidisciplinary team. An additional benefit for the children is they need not travel to unfamiliar environments, which is frequently distressing for children with ASD. Lastly, Telerehab is a sustainable initiative allowing for less manpower to cover the growing number of patients, and the possibility to be implemented in other government run hospitals and clinics facing similar challenges. Elaboration of benefits:1) Importance of parent and caregiver empowerment. Early Intervention in the current model has been predominantly centre based with initiatives to increase caregiver education. A large body of literature suggests that early intervention is highly successful when provided at the age of diagnosis, with younger children yielding better outcomes. Caregiver involvement is vital to long-term success, as they spend a significant amount of time with their child; they can support the generalizations of new skills. National Research Council identifies parent training to be the key component for successful intervention for children with autism. Parent training improves quality of life by reducing parental stress and increasing optimism.2) Addressing nationally identified gaps. The Enabling Master plan recommendations for 2012-2016 (under Ministry of Family and Social Development) identifies gaps in family involvement and support in acquiring necessary skills and knowledge to be competent in helping their children make developmental gains. Child Development Unit (CDU) envisions that Telerehab is a viable avenue for supporting parents in learning EI skills.3) Improving existing parent training programmes. CDU has successfully piloted a parent-training program for children with ASD called SPEECCH. In our study of the impact of this parent-training program, children made measurable progress in all four skill areas assessed (p<0.001). Focus on achievable and observable family- centred developmental goals showed evidence for increased parental understanding of children's learning and behaviour amp; effective use of strategies for facilitating communication and interactions to support their child's development (p<0.001). However this intervention service could not be sustained due to high caseload demands and insufficient manpower. Parent interviews during review visits identified having sustained contact with therapists and parent coaching to be key areas of need. Currently the service provides intervention for 24 children with ASD weekly for one hour across 12 weeks, and continued support for up to 20 weeks (maximum of 16 hours of intervention). Of the new referrals of 150 children with ASD, if a sustained service is to be provided, only a small group of children will receive intervention. In order to address the demand, the frequency and intensity of intervention has had to be sacrificed to be able to provide some service to all patients. Hence to maximize the impact of early intervention, a sustainable model of service delivery using technology through videoconferencing is being proposed.
This project will evaluate the effectiveness of MINDful TIME, an 8-week mindfulness-based program designed to improve mental health in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers. MINDful TIME includes weekly psychoeducational group meetings conducted through videoconferencing and use of a commercially available mindfulness meditation app. The investigators predict that adolescents in the mindfulness intervention group will demonstrate increases in self-reported mindfulness and reductions in self- and parent-reported anxiety and depression relative to a delayed treatment control group. The investigators will also explore whether caregivers in the treatment group demonstrate improvements in quality of life.
The investigator would like to investigate the impact of theta-burst stimulation over cerebellum in adults with autism spectrum disorder