Asperger's Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asperger's Syndrome, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, medication.

Violent Crime in Asperger Syndrome: The Role of Psychiatric Comorbidity.

Newman SS, Ghaziuddin M

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.

Although several studies have suggested an association between violent crime and Asperger syndrome (AS), few have examined the underlying reasons. The aim of this review is to determine to what extent psychiatric factors contribute to offending behavior in this population. Online databases were used to identify relevant articles which were then cross-referenced with keyword searches for "violence," "crime," "murder," "assault," "rape," and "sex offenses." Most of the 17 publications which met the inclusion criteria were single case reports. Of the 37 cases described in these publications, 11 cases (29.7%) cases had a definite psychiatric disorder and 20 cases (54%) had a probable psychiatric disorder at the time of committing the crime. These findings underscore the role of psychiatric disorders in the occurrence of violent crime in persons with Asperger syndrome and highlight the need for their early diagnosis and treatment.

Published 1 May 2008 in J Autism Dev Disord.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 28 April 2008:

Auditory evoked fields predict language ability and impairment in children.   Int J Psychophysiol, 68(2): 170-5.

Recent evidence suggests that a subgroup of children with autism show similarities to children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in the pattern of their linguistic impairments, but the source of this overlap is unclear. We examined the ability of auditory evoked magnetic fields to predict language and other developmental abilities in children and adolescents. Following standardized assessment of language ability, nonverbal IQ, and autism-associated behaviors, 110 trails of a tone were ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 25 April 2008:

Autism Spectrum Symptomatology in Children: The Impact of Family and Peer Relationships.   J Abnorm Child Psychol.

This study examines the potential impact of family conflict and cohesion, and peer support/bullying on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While such impacts have been established for a range of non-ASD childhood disorders, these findings may not generalize to children with ASD because of unique problems in perspective-taking, understanding others' emotion, cognitive rigidity, and social reasoning. A structural model-building approach was used to test the extent to which family and ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 24 April 2008:

Familial deletion within NLGN4 associated with autism and Tourette syndrome.   Eur J Hum Genet, 16(5): 614-8.

Neuroligin 4 (NLGN4) is a member of a cell adhesion protein family that appears to play a role in the maturation and function of neuronal synapses. Mutations in the X-linked NLGN4 gene are a potential cause of autistic spectrum disorders, and mutations have been reported in several patients with autism, Asperger syndrome, and mental retardation. We describe here a family with a wide variation in neuropsychiatric illness associated with a deletion of exons 4, 5, and 6 of NLGN4. The proband is an ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 22 April 2008:

A twin study investigating the genetic and environmental aetiologies of parent, teacher and child ratings of autistic-like traits and their overlap.   Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry.

In the present study we investigated phenotypic agreement between informants (parent, teacher and child self-report) on ratings of autistic-like traits and compared the genetic and environmental aetiologies of the informants' ratings and of their covariance. Parents and teachers of >2,500 pairs from a community twin sample completed an abbreviated Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST). The twins also completed an adapted self-report version of the CAST. Structural equation model-fitting ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 14 April 2008:

The Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST): Sex Differences.   J Autism Dev Disord.

The Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST) (formally known as the Childhood Asperger Screening Test) identifies autism spectrum conditions by measuring social and communication skills. The present study explored the sex distribution of scores. The CAST was distributed to 11,635 children aged 4-9 years in Cambridgeshire primary schools (UK). 3,370 (29%) were returned. The median score was significantly higher in boys (median test, P < 0.001) (Boys, median = 5 (IQR: 3,8); girls, median = 4 ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 10 April 2008:

Evidence for overlapping genetic influences on autistic and ADHD behaviours in a community twin sample.   J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 49(5): 535-42.

BACKGROUND: High levels of clinical comorbidity have been reported between autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study takes an individual differences approach to determine the degree of phenotypic and aetiological overlap between autistic traits and ADHD behaviours in the general population. METHODS: The Twins Early Development Study is a community sample born in England and Wales. Families with twins born in 1994-6 were invited to join; ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 4 April 2008:

Assessment of the acute toxicity of triclosan and methyl triclosan in wastewater based on the bioluminescence inhibition of Vibrio fischeri.   Anal Bioanal Chem, 390(8): 1999-2007.

In this work, the contributions of triclosan and its metabolite methyl triclosan to the overall acute toxicity of wastewater were studied using Vibrio fischeri. The protocol used in this paper involved various steps. First, the aquatic toxicities of triclosan and methyl triclosan were determined for standard substances, and the 50% effective concentrations (EC(50)) were determined for these compounds. Second, the toxic responses to different mixtures of triclosan, methyl triclosan, and ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 1 April 2008:

High prevalence of bipolar disorder comorbidity in adolescents and young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: A preliminary study of 44 outpatients.   J Affect Disord.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric comorbidity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has not been well examined. METHODS: Mood disorders in 44 consecutive outpatients with high-functioning ASD were examined at a university hospital according to DSM-IV. Inclusion criteria were an IQ of 70 or higher on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and age of 12 years or over. RESULTS: Sixteen patients (36.4%) were diagnosed with mood disorder. Of these 16 patients, four were diagnosed as having major depressive disorder, two ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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