Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are chronic, lifelong disorders for which there is as yet no effective cure, and medical management remains a challenge for clinicians. The current report describes two patients affected by autistic disorder with associated gastrointestinal symptoms. They received multiple doses of intravenous secretin for a six-month period and were assessed with several...

Calcium as a molecule plays a significant role in the body, especially in the central nervous system. In its free form, it has been classified as a cofactor, second messenger, and signaling molecule, and, when bound, forms a protein and coenzyme. This is secondary to the critical, and at times, very sensitive reactions associated with it. Calcium homeostasis, especially in the context of the ce...

The diagnosis of Angelman syndrome (AS) can be confirmed by genetic laboratory in about 80% of cases. In 20%, the diagnosis remains clinical, but often there is uncertainty about the correctness of the clinical diagnosis and alternative diagnoses may be investigated. In evaluating individuals for AS in our center since 1989, we have encountered several mimicking conditions, and additional ones ...

The newest revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the DSM-5, will be published in less than a year and anticipation is high. The changes to the Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) criteria are likely to be among the most extensive of the revisions to the manual, as well as among the most contested. Worries about loss of diagnosis and service eligibility...

Autism is not a disease. There is no blood test, neuroimaging, or electroencephalography (EEG) test for making or confirming this diagnosis. Autism is a behaviorally-defined syndrome that denotes atypical development of the immature brain and becomes manifest in late infancy, in toddlers, or young preschoolers. To the experienced clinician, classic autism is an obvious diagnosis. But experience...

In this study, we applied a novel psycho-educational horseback riding (PEHR) program to the treatment of four Japanese children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) in order to facilitate the acquisition of verbal and nonverbal communication skills. The behavioral changes in each child were evaluated using a psychological and behavioral scale. The scale for evaluating the effect of Huma...

BACKGROUND Although interventions for children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) have been the focus of research effort and evidence reviews in many Western countries, this evidence has not been assessed in the context of low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries especially in terms of the fit with different cultures and resources. METHOD As a part of the WHO MH-GAP project, we carri...

OBJECTIVE To verify differences in the visual scanning strategies between pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and controls when they are observing social and non-social pictures. METHOD PDD group (PDDG) comprised by 10 non-retarded subjects (age from 4 to 41) and age-matched control group (CG). Nine social pictures with human beings (including two pictures of cat mask), and 3 nonsocial pi...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine which factors on the Sensory Profile, a measure of children's responses to commonly occurring sensory experiences, best discriminate among children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and children without disabilities. METHOD Data for three groups of children...

We examined behaviour management problems as predictors of psychotropic medication, use of psychiatric consultation and in-patient admission in a group of 66 adults with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and intellectual disability (ID) and 99 controls matched in age, gender and level of ID. Overall, people with PDD had higher rates of most DAS behaviour problems and more frequent use of a...