Over the past two decades, catatonia has been better demarcated in adult psychiatry as a unique syndrome that consists of specific motor signs with a characteristic response to benzodiazepines and electroconvulsive therapy. Pediatric catatonia is considered rare, but may be underdiagnosed, and hence undertreated. Discussed here are the current diagnostic criteria of catatonia in individual case...

Autism is a developmental disorder that is evident in infancy or early childhood and results in a broad range of behaviors and, often, lifelong impairments. Now conceptualized as a spectrum of related diagnostic categories, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) involve severe difficulties in basic aspects of social behavior and communication, such as eye contact, facial expressions, and the develop...

This paper was commissioned by the committee on the Effectiveness of Early Education in Autism of the National Research Council (NRC). It provides a review of epidemiological studies of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) which updates a previously published article (The epidemiology of autism: a review. Psychological Medicine 1999; 29: 769-786). The design, sample characteristics of 32 sur...

OBJECTIVES The prevalence of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) has increased. There has been speculation regarding a role of thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) in this trend. Our objectives were to determine prevalence rates of PDDs among school-aged children, and to evaluate the impact of discontinuation of thimerosal use in 1996 in routine childhood vaccines on PDD rates. METHOD C...

[1.2–1.57]). In Italy, we have “our own Finland,” namely Sardinia. Italy has a peculiar epidemiology of type 1 diabetes. Sardinia has one of the highest incidences in the world (42.4/100 [95% CI 40.5–44.4]), while peninsular Italy has an overall incidence that is similar to other Mediterranean areas (8.4/100 [7.9–8.9], 11.2/100 [10.3– 12.2] in North Italy, and 6.2/100 [5.8– 6.7] in South Italy)...

Online at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11581466 Details: A link had been hypothesized between MMR vaccine and a type of ASD where developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms appear shortly after vaccination. The hypothesis involves 3 claims: 1) this is a new type of ASD, 2) this new type is responsible for the reported ASD rate increase, and 3) this new type is associated with...

background: there have been several studies conducted on the relationship between bipolar mood disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( adhd) during the recent years, and in most of them the rate of this association had been estimated as 22-90% and had been reported as noticeable. the goal of this study is to determine the prevalence of adhd in patients with bipolar mood disorder...