What is Asperger's Syndrome?

Asperger's syndrome, also called Asperger's disorder, is a type of pervasive development disorder (PDD). PDDs are a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination.

Although Asperger's syndrome is similar in some ways to autism -- another, more severe type of PDD -- there are some important differences. Children with Asperger's syndrome typically function better than do those with autism. In addition, children with Asperger's syndrome generally have normal intelligence and near-normal language development, although they may develop problems communicating as they get older.

Asperger's syndrome was named for the Austrian doctor, Hans Asperger, who first described the disorder in 1944. However, Asperger's syndrome was not recognized as a unique disorder until much later.

What Are the Symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome?

The symptoms of Asperger's syndrome vary and can range from mild to severe. Common symptoms include:

• Problems with social skills: Children with Asperger's syndrome generally have difficulty interacting with others and often are awkward in social situations. They generally do not make friends easily.
• Eccentric or repetitive behaviors: Children with this condition may develop odd, repetitive movements, such as hand wringing or finger twisting.
• Unusual preoccupations or rituals: A child with Asperger's syndrome may develop rituals that he or she refuses to alter, such as getting dressed in a specific order.
• Communication difficulties: People with Asperger's syndrome may not make eye contact when speaking with someone. They may have trouble using facial expressions and gestures, and understanding body language. They also tend to have problems understanding language in context.
• Limited range of interests: A child with Asperger's syndrome may develop an intense, almost obsessive, interest in a few areas, such as sports schedules, weather, or maps.
• Coordination problems: The movements of children with Asperger's syndrome may seem clumsy or awkward.
• Skilled or talented: Many children with Asperger's syndrome are exceptionally talented or skilled in a particular area, such as music or math.
  

What Causes Asperger's Syndrome?

The exact cause of Asperger's syndrome is not known. However, the fact that it tends to run in families suggests that a tendency to develop the disorder may be inherited (passed on from parent to child).

How Common Is Asperger's Syndrome?

Asperger's syndrome has only recently been recognized as a unique disorder. For that reason, the exact number of people with the disorder is unknown, although it is more common than autism. Estimates suggest Asperger's syndrome affects from 0.024% to 0.36% of children. It is more common in males than in females, and usually is first diagnosed in children between the ages of 2 and 6 years.

How Is Asperger's Syndrome Diagnosed?

If symptoms are present, the doctor will begin an evaluation by performing a complete medical history and physical exam. Although there are no tests for Asperger's syndrome, the doctor may use various tests -- such as X-rays and blood tests -- to determine if there is a physical disorder causing the symptoms.

If no physical disorder is found, the child may be referred to a specialist in childhood development disorders, such as a child and adolescent psychiatrist or psychologist, pediatric neurologist, developmental pediatrician, or another health professional who is specially trained to diagnose and treat Asperger's syndrome. The doctor bases his or her diagnosis on the child's level of development, and the doctor's observation of the child's speech and behavior, including his or her play and ability to socialize with others. The doctor often seeks input from the child's parents, teachers, and other adults who are familiar with the child's symptoms.

How Is Asperger's Syndrome Treated?

There currently is no cure for Asperger's syndrome, but treatment may improve functioning and reduce undesirable behaviors. Treatment may include a combination of the following:

• Special education: Education that is structured to meet the child's unique educational needs.
• Behavior modification: This includes strategies for supporting positive behavior and decreasing problem behavior by the child.
• Speech, physical, or occupational therapy: These therapies are designed to increase the child's functional abilities.
• Medication : There are no medications to treat Asperger's syndrome itself, but drugs may be used to treat specific symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and obsessive-compulsive behavior.
  

What Is the Outlook for People With Asperger's Syndrome?

Children with Asperger's syndrome are at risk for developing other mental illnesses, such as depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But, there are various treatment options available for these conditions.

Because the level of intelligence often is average or higher than average, many people with Asperger's syndrome are able to function very well. They may, however, continue to have problems socializing with others through adulthood.
Can Asperger's Syndrome Be Prevented?

Asperger's syndrome cannot be prevented or cured. However, early diagnosis and treatment can improve function and quality of life.

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What kind of mental health, foster children

Of the approximately half a million children and adolescents in foster care in the United States, experts believe that 42 to 60 per cent of them have emotional and behavioral disorders. Despite the prevalence of mental disorders in foster children, very little is known about how pre-existing mental health affects their effectiveness in operation.

A new study co-author Jung-Min Park and Joseph P. Ryan, a professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Illinois, since 5978 children in foster care in Illinois for several years to determine whether these children in permanent placement and the results were presented at the intensity of their stories about mental health care. State of all children and adolescents, 3-18-year-olds, in caring for the first time from 1997 to 2001. They were in June 2005.

Based on children's rights and reports Medicaid, the study on behalf of children receive mental health care in the hospital because it is easy to identify a marker of severe emotional and behavioral disorders, and it is very demanding of mental health. Five per cent (296) children, at least one episode of hospitalization for mental health care before you enter.

"According to my previous study, children who received inpatient psychiatric care ended up in foster care within two years of their first inpatient episode," Park said.

"Children who receive inpatient psychiatric care have a substantially greater risk for parent-child separation. Our current study shows that when those children enter the child-welfare system, they are more likely to suffer poor outcomes and be left behind in the system."

The study showed that children with episodes of psychiatric hospitalization are at increased risk of frequent accidents and accommodation were less likely to return to their families of origin or adoption.

About half of the sample for more than three changes in his first placement in care. The cases of hospitalization for mental health among white children increases the risk of instability for the transfer of 75 per cent, while those events, accommodation of 24 percent among black children.

The study also indicated that access was restricted, and the use of psychiatric care in the African-American children.

"Children with a history of inpatient mental health treatment, especially when placed in foster care, benefit from continued follow-up and referrals to community mental health agencies to reduce placement disruptions and facilitate timely permanence," Park said.

Care places, significant cost to taxpayers: placement in a therapeutic aid worth $ 30,000 or more a year, as well as placement in a residential mental health care a lot.

"Early identification of service needs and related interventions for children and youth with intensive mental health needs can be cost-efficient by helping them achieve placement stability and permanence," Park said.

During the observation period, approximately 70 percent of children in the study, the durability of return to their families or through adoption or guardianship.

The study appears in the January 2009 issue of Journal of Research on Social Work Practice.

Source: Sharita Forrest
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (http://www.uiuc.edu/)

1 In 4 Australian Kid Have A Parent With A Mental Illness

Almost a quarter of Australian children with one parent with mental illness, in the light of new studies, published in the January issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin.

Of these, just over 1% (approximately 60,000 children) have one parent who has a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression or manic depression.

The prevalence of mental disorders in the Australian parent families was developed by a group of scientists from Australia, Charles Sturt University and Latrobe University.

Until now, There are some estimates of the number of children in families suffering from mental illness of parents in Australia. Instead, the policy that the data from North and South America, Australia or small budget.

In this study, researchers used three methods to assess the prevalence of mental illness of their parents. First, the figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics study of mental health in the family characteristics of studies, assessment of the population.

According to this assessment, 23.3% of all children in Germany, have parents with a substance which is not a mental illness. A smaller proportion - 1.3% - whose father is severe mental illness.

The second approach has a record of all users of mental health in the state of Victoria in the period from 2003 to 2004 to 38,455 people in total. This suggests that 7829 users (20.4%) had children.

In the latter approach, the survey population of about 700 8 - 12 years, children in three Australian states. Of these, 14.4% reported that at least one parent with mental illness.

Writing in the Psychiatric Bulletin, the authors of the study, said: "Unfortunately, mental illness, but the parents have no guarantee of bad outcomes for children, parents, most with severe disabilities were less sensitive and responsible parenting, mental illness is much higher than that of progeny, insecure children's institutions, and lower quality of the child's parents relations.

"The estimates nearly 60,000 children, parents with serious mental illness in Australia is likely to be very precise in these figures are extrapolated to the conditions of Australia's 14,403 children, the parents of Victoria with severe mental illness. That said, large numbers of children who may be under threat, because their parents have a serious mental illness. "

The authors believe that their new estimates provide important information for policy development and mental health programs. She said: "This test provides information to governments and organizations to promote the mental health of children, many of whom could be considered living in families with a high risk."

www.rcpsych.ac.uk

A new scoring system IQ tests are useful for children with mental disabilities

Researchers are developing a procedure for more accurate capacity of children. Parents of children with mental disabilities, were disappointed with IQ tests, they said virtually nothing about their children in the long-term training opportunities. This is because the tests are conducted in accordance with the average performance of children without disabilities, so that the raw scores of many children with intellectual disabilities at a low level of output: as a rule, no.

"We send back these reports that don't tell parents anything about their child," explained David Hessl, associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California Davis M.I.N.D. Institute.

Well, Hessle, and a team from the new system, points IQ tests, the number of children with fragile X syndrome, genetic disorder that causes mental retardation, including autism. His studies were in-line Springer in the journal Neuro-development disorders.

"If this new method becomes widely available, we will be able to tell parents something more useful and more accurately diagnose and treat young children who are learning disabled," said Hessl, a physician who cares for children with fragile X syndrome.

According to Hessler, "There are many differences in the performance of children with mental disabilities in IQ tests. IQ tests are frustrated by "lack of sensitivity, Hessle develop scoring method to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each child.

"I knew a more accurate estimation of the potential of these children would make a big difference in their lives," he said.

In collaboration with researchers from the MIND Institute and Stanford University, as well as statistics from the National University of Pennsylvania, the group came with the new standardized scores of 217 children with fragile X syndrome, IQ test.

"The new scores tell us more precisely how a child with fragile X syndrome deviates from the normal population in every sub-test area," Hessl said.

Treatment of fragile X syndrome depends on its manifestation in each of the behavioral therapy to medication. The widespread use of new skills at a higher level will be the doctors treat their patients.

Hessl concluded, "In the future, the publishers of IQ tests should include lower functioning individuals in their standardization studies. This might mean over-sampling those with intellectual disability in order to get more sensitivity, but it would help so many children."

Springer Science+Business Media
http://www.springer.com

Most children are drug-Americans

American children in approximately three times more likely to appoint psychotropic medications for children in Europe. A new study published in the BioMed Central open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health said that differences could be considered for the management of cultural practices and beliefs about the role of drugs on the emotional problems and behavioral problems.


Julie Zito led a group of researchers from the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands investigated that the recipe in the three countries. She said antidepressants and stimulants prevalence of three or more times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands and Germany, while the anti-psychotic prevalence was 1.5 to 2.2 times higher. "

The use of antidepressants Prozac, as well as stimulants like Ritalin in children has been under great controversy, and the study of quantitative differences in practice between the U.S. and Western Europe. The authors argue that the difference may be partly due to different classification systems for diagnosis, "the U.S. growth trend bipolar diagnosis in children and adolescents are not in line with European practice." The authors also noted the limitations of public spending in Europe, the largest number of child psychiatrists per capita in the United States and the use of two or more psychotropic drugs for one year in the U.S. children as a possible explanation.

Zito to the conclusion that "direct consumer advertising of drugs in the United States, it is also to address some differences. The increasing use of drugs in the U.S. also reflects the individualistic and activist therapeutic mentality in the U.S. medical culture."

Source : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123025.php