View clinical trials related to Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Filter by:Depression and anxiety are major challenges to American children's optimal mental health, with already high rates exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet help is beyond reach for many children who do not have access to care for reasons including a severely depleted cadre of professionally trained service providers, fear of stigma that goes along with a diagnosis, low access to clinics, and lack of insurance. Without help their problems will likely accelerate and become more deleterious to their development as adolescents and young adults. The current study aims to address the lack of care by providing a program in school classrooms that will reduce children's symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as enhance their emotion regulation and coping skills. The mental health and adjustment of two groups of children are compared and evaluated at twelve week intervals in this clinical trial - those who first participate in the Kids' Empowerment Program (KEP) and a comparison group that participates in the program after the second evaluation. Once proven to be successful, the ultimate goal of the project is to disseminate the program throughout the State of Michigan and beyond, thereby providing children with tools that will empower them to be successful in managing emotional challenges throughout their life.
The goal of this clinical trial is to implement a structured psychosocial intervention program with digital support (randomized and with a control group) that will be conducted virtually and synchronously to families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and families of children with Attention Deficit with hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Will the program impact on different variables in the parents' domain (parental stress variables, quality of life/social support and coping skills), 2. Will the program impact on different variables in the children's domain (daily life functioning, social behavioral variables, and executive functioning). 3. Treatment outcomes will be assessed at pre-test, post-test, and 6-month follow-up assessment across intervention and control groups using a battery of measures of parenting stress, coping skills, social support, and children's dysfunctional outcomes Parents and teachers will complete different questionnaires to see if there are improvements on parent's and children outcomes. Researchers will compare intervention group and control group to see if there are improvements on parent's domains (parenting stress, coping skills, social support) and children's dysfunctional outcomes (daily life functioning, social behavioral variables, and executive functioning).
The study will be conducted to examine the effects of abnormal growth pattern and cerebrovascular blood flow measurements on fetal frontal lobe development with the advancing ultrasound technology. Antenatal assessment of frontal lobe development will enable clinicians to predict neurodevelopmental problems that may develop postnatally. In addition, this study will examine the effects of FGR on frontal lobe development.
The overall project aim is to study children's neurodevelopmental outcomes (including diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability) following exposure to maternal anemia during pregnancy or anemia during the first year of life using national and regional Swedish health-data registers, and to assess children's neurodevelopmental outcomes over the range of maternal hemoglobin levels during pregnancy.
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.
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and others, that begin at a developmental stage and severely affect the growth and development of the brain. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encompasses a group of neurodevelopmental syndromes characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication as well as repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. There is strong evidence for the involvement of inherited genetic factors in ASD (accounting for at least 80% of the variation in disease risk). There is strong evidence for the involvement of inherited genetic factors in ASD (accounting for at least 80% of the variation in disease risk). According to a meta-analysis, monogenic mutations in SHANK3, which encodes the major postsynaptic density (PSD) scaffolding protein at excitatory glutamatergic synapses, are found in approximately 0.69% of ASD cases and up to 2.12% of all moderate to profound intellectual disability cases. De novo mutations, interstitial deletions, and terminal deletions have been identified in ASD. Recent studies have shown that children with ASD have significantly lower levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) than those without. Studies have shown that higher DHA intake reduces the risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, and conduct disorders. After DHA treatment, most children with ASD showed clinical and biochemical improvements, with increased DHA levels as measured by blood analysis and significant improvements in social scale scores in the supplement group. Moreover, increasing DHA levels in children with ADHD through dietary supplements can improve behavior, attention, literacy, cognitive problems, and working memory function. Therefore, for neurodevelopmental disorders, high DHA intake may be an important component of disease prevention.
The goal of this study is to assess the individualized use of technology to assess motor function and balance for ambulatory children participating in an intensive therapy episode of care and determine the effectiveness of the program. Children 7-17 years old who can walk and are completing an intensive therapy episode of care will be recruited to participate in this study. Demographic, health history, and PT,OT,ST medical records will be collected. Based on the participant's functional goals, motor function and balance tests will be selected including common balance tests (standing with eyes open, standing with eyes closed), walking, walking and turning, standing up and sitting down from a bench, reaction time, and step down. Participants will be tested before, immediately after, 6 weeks after, and 12 weeks after the episode of care.
As a follow-up to the RAPIDIRON Trial (NCT05358509), and in combination with the RAPIDIRON-KIDS Study (NCT05504863), this study will involve infants of RAPIDIRON Trial participants recruited at one site in Karnataka and is designed to implement a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol and incorporate neuroimaging measures. Implementation of this study will promote an understanding of the effects on fetal and neonatal brain development, including iron deposition in brain tissues, when a woman is treated for iron deficiency anemia (IDA) by either (a) providing her oral iron tablets and instructions for use; or (b) administering a single-dose IV iron infusion for the treatment of IDA during pregnancy.
Children with special education needs (SEN) (e.g., autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia) who are studying in the mainstream primary schools are commonly found to have difficulties in learning school materials, and controlling their emotion and behaviors in class. Such schooling problems are likely related to their deficient attention, self-control ability and language abilities. As a result, they will easily be stressful, losing confidence, or even be the target of bullying or discrimination. This project aims to evaluate a neuroscience based after-school training program, namely EC Brain Program, to improve academic performance, cognition (attention, self-control and language ability), behaviors and psychological health of primary school students with SEN. The EC Brain Program is composed of computerized training programs that were developed to enhance abilities of attention, self-control and temporal processing (i.e., a fundamental cognitive ability in mastering reading and language skills), and education on basic neuroscience knowledge and ways to enhance brain functions and psychological wellness, e.g., relaxation, stress management and balanced healthy diet. A total of 100 - 250 students with SEN from 10 ordinary primary schools will be recruited in 3-year period. They will be randomly assigned into two groups. Both groups will undergo pre- and post-assessments evaluating their academic performance, cognitive functions, saccadic eye movements, physical and mental health conditions before and after the training. Students in the group A will have to participate in the EC Brain after-school program, whereas students in the group B will join conventional intervention. It is an eight-month weekly program, 90 minutes per session. It is hypothesized that students who have joined the EC Brain Program will show greater extent of improvement in academic performance, behavioral problems, cognitive functions (e.g., attention, learning, self-control, language), saccadic eye movements and psychological wellness than those in the other group. The findings of present study will shed some light on the effectiveness and applicability of the EC Brain Program as a potential after-school neuropsychological intervention for students with SEN.
Neonatal intensive care relies on indwelling plastic medical devices fundamental in respiratory support, intravenous catheterization, and nutrition. While being in a critical developmental period, constant exposure to these invasive medical devices puts premature neonates at risk of plasticizers' potential toxicity. Despite novel regulations and development of alternative plasticizers (AP), reference to guide manufacturers and an overview of the prevailing exposure levels to DEHP or alternatives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are still missing. The three main objectives of this project are: (1) to assess current exposure to plasticizers in the NICU, (2) to identify the sources of exposure and (3) to study the resultant long-term health risk in premature neonates. These objectives are addressed in three work packages (WP). In work package 1, in vivo exposure of premature neonates to phthalates and alternative plasticizers is assessed by determining their metabolites in biological matrices (urine and hair). Work package 2 explores ex vivo leaching characteristics of different plasticizers from medical devices used in the NICU. Finally, Work package 3 studies the long-term neurocognitive and lung development in relation to plasticizer exposure in the NICU.