• We analyze the behavioral and motor disturbances in childhood autism. On the basis of analogy to signs and conditions seen in adult neurology, we propose that the syndrome results from dysfunction in a system of bilateral neural structures that includes the ring of mesolimbic cortex located in the mesial frontal and temporal lobes, the neostriatum, and the anterior and medial nuclear groups of the thalamus. The mesolimbic cortex is cytoarchitectonically, angioarchitectonically, and neurochemically distinct and, along with the striatum, forms the entire target area of dopaminergic mesencephalic neurons. This raises the possibility that autism is related to neuromediator imbalance in those structures. Such dysfunction might be the result of macroscopic or microscopic changes in the target area or in structures functionally influencing them, consequent to a variety of causes such as perinatal viral infection, insult to the periventricular watershed area, or genetically determined neurochemical abnormalities.

A Neurological Model for Childhood Autism

A new standardised interview for the retrospective assessment of onset and early course of schizophrenia (IRAOS) was used to study the influence of age and sex on time of onset and psychopathology before first admission in 267 schizophrenic patients admitted for the first time. Mean age at onset, according to various operationalised definitions, differed by three to four years between the sexes. The age distribution at the earliest sign of mental disorder showed an early and steep increase until the age of 25 in males, and a delayed and smaller increase in females, with a second peak in women aged 45-79. Schizophrenia began with negative symptoms in 70% of cases, appearing two to six years before admission, and all positive symptoms appearing up to two years before. Both positive and negative symptoms accumulated exponentially. The early course of the disease was similar across age groups, except there was a longer period of negative symptoms before first admission in late-onset schizophrenia in women. The few significant age differences in symptoms were presumably due to general age-dependent reaction patterns like anxiety and depression or the cognitive development of personality, as indicated by an increase in fully elaborated positive symptoms, especially systematised paranoid delusions, with age.

The influence of age and sex on the onset and early course of schizophrenia.

ion, 88,90 Addison's disease, 243 Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), 170

Autism: A Reappraisal of Concepts and Treatment

There is broad agreement that genetic influences are central in the development of idiopathic autism. Whether relatives manifest genetically related milder phenotypes, and if so how these relate to autism proper, has proved a more contentious issue. A review of the relevant studies indicates that relatives are sometimes affected by difficulties that appear conceptually related to autistic behaviors. These range in severity from pervasive developmental disorders to abnormalities in only one area of functioning, and possibly extend to related personality traits. Issues involved in clarifying the components of milder phenotypes and their relationship to autism are outlined.

Autism: The Phenotype in Relatives

Social language use (pragmatics) in parents of autistic individuals and controls was compared Autism parents displayed atypical pragmatic behaviours more often than controls Preliminary factor analysis suggested three parsimonious groupings of pragmatic abnormalities: Disinhibited Social Communication, Awkward/Inadequate Expression, and Odd Verbal Interaction The pragmatic features observed in some autism parents are milder but conceptually similar to the social language deficits of autism Possible reasons for familial aggregation of pragmatic language deficits are discussed

Social language use in parents of autistic individuals.

On clinical examination 42 per cent of the mothers of 32 children with L.O.P. were regarded as introverted, but only 13 per cent of the mothers of 46 children with I.P.

Twenty L.O.P. mothers and 26 I.P. mothers were tested with the M.P.I. which confirmed the introversion of mothers of the L.O.P. group. There was a higher percentage of sensitive, suspicious parents in this group. More parents of I.P. children were over-protective.

These findings are believed to support the differentiation of childhood psychotics into distinct diagnostic categories.

/pdf/parental-personality-and-attitude-and-childhood-psychoses-60o8gr5dme.pdf

J. S. H. Kidd

Papers

Parental Personality and Attitude and Childhood Psychoses