Autism : the international journal of research and practice
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Use of the questionnaire on resources and stress (QRS-F) with parents of young children with autism.
The Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (Friedrich, short form: QRS-F) has been used widely with parents of children with disabilities. However, its psychometric properties in parents of young children with autism have not been established. Here, 174 mothers and 43 fathers of children under 6 years with autism spectrum disorder were studied by two independent research teams. ⋯ Analyses revealed evidence of good reliability, and expected associations with social support, coping and autism severity. These analyses lend preliminary support to the convergent validity of the scale. Overall, the data support the use of a total stress score from the 31-item version of the QRS-F in research with parents of young children with autism.
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Rett syndrome is a neuro-developmental disorder related to autistic behavior. Persons with autism have previously been found to have hyperpeptiduria. We here report a significantly higher level of peptides in the first fasting morning urine from 53 girls with Rett syndrome (both classical and congenital) compared with 53 healthy girls. ⋯ Levels of peptides were lower in girls with classic Rett syndrome than in girls with congenital Rett syndrome. This may be due to different etiological causes or to active and stagnant phases of the disease. Urine from girls with Rett syndrome was found to have higher frequency and higher levels of some urinary peptides that may cause inhibition of brain maturation and epilepsy
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The prevalence of childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is unknown. In this study, 32 epidemiological surveys of autism and pervasive developmental disorders published in English language journals since 1966 were reviewed. ⋯ The conclusion is that CDD is very rare and its prevalence is 60 times less than that for autistic disorder, assuming a prevalence of 10 per 10,000 for autism. If a rate of 30 per 10,000 is taken for all PDDs, only one child out of 175 children with a PDD diagnosis would, on average, meet criteria for CDD.