AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)
ASD is a psychological disorder that results from neural development.
ASD patients show impaired social communication as well as repetitive behaviour.
Notable symptoms in ASD include insomnia, hyperactivity and repetitive behaviour such as hand flapping. Some individuals show aggressiveness(Kitaoka et al., 2020).
Risk Factors Associated with ASD
Several factors have been associated with increased risk of ASD
Studies point out that both gender and environmental factors contribute to the development of ASD. Male babies have are likely to be autistic compared to female babies.
Other scientific findings have identified genetic factors to be linked with ASD. Multiple genetic loci have been identified and linked to increased risk of ASD.
It is important for mothers to go for genetic counselling to enable them understand the relationship between genetics and ASD.
Treatment of ASD
Both behavioural and pharmacological interventions have been prescribed for the treatment of ASD.
Cognitive behavioral therapy have been used for both mild to moderate anxiety and depression as well as in autistic children.
Pharmacological interventions such as the use of risperidone and aripiprazole has been approved by the FDA to manage irritability associated with ASD (Cooper et al., 2018; Yu et al., 2020).
Other interventions such as music therapy have been proposed. This involves the use of songs and lyrics that relate to target skills (Sharda et al., 2018).
Identification of relevant research articles
Since my clinical issue of interest involved the treatment of ASD, my search keywords included ‘autism’, ‘ASD’ and ‘treatment’.
The search was carried within research databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Biomed Central and MEDLINE
A total of 2787 articles resulted from Biomed Central database. However, only two articles were picked for analysis
APA citations for the articles
Cooper, K., Loades, M., & Russell, A. (2018). Adapting psychological therapies for autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 45, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2017.11.002
Kitaoka, T., Morimoto, M., Hashimoto, T., Tsuda, Y., Nakatsu, T., & Kyotani, S. (2020). Evaluation of the efficacy of drug treatment based on measurement of the oxidative stress, using reactive oxygen metabolites and biological antioxidant potential, in children with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40780-020-00164-w
Sharda, M., Tuerk, C., Chowdhury, R., Jamey, K., Foster, N., Custo-Blanch, M., … Hyde, K. (2018). Music improves social communication and auditory–motor connectivity in children with autism. Translational Psychiatry, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0287-3
Yu, Y., Chaulagain, A., Pedersen, S. A., Lydersen, S., Leventhal, B. L., Szatmari, P., … Skokauskas, N. (2020). Pharmacotherapy of restricted/repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorder:a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-2477-9
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