Schizotypal traits in Swedish speaking psychiatric patients and non-psychiatric controls.

Introduction: Recently, schizotypal personality traits were measured in a multinational sample recruited from 14 countries, however no Scandinavian cohort was included. The aim of this study was, therefore, to measure schizotypal personality traits in Swedish-speaking populations, with and without psychiatric disorders, and to investigate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B).Methods: The SPQ-B results from 50 psychiatric patients were compared to controls (n = 202). An additional sample of 25 controls completed the full SPQ twice and we calculated test-retest reliability for SPQ and SPQ-B. We estimated the internal consistency for SPQ-B and SPQ-B factors with omega. We compared the results of SPQ-B (M and SD) in patient and control groups to corresponding results worldwide.Results: We found similarity between our SPQ-B scores and those from other published samples. SPQ-B showed good internal consistency and acceptable test-retest correlations. The results indicate that the Swedish version of the instrument is valid and can differentiate psychiatric cohorts from non-psychiatric controls.Conclusion: The Swedish version of the SPQ-B exhibit good psychometric properties and is useful for assessing schizotypal traits in clinical and non-clinical populations.

Long-acting olanzapine injection during pregnancy and breastfeeding: a case report.

We present one case of a woman treated with the intramuscular depot formulation of the atypical antipsychotic, olanzapine pamoate (ZypAdhera®), during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Data on olanzapine distribution in breast milk as well as on plasma concentration in the nursed infant are provided. The present case report demonstrates that olanzapine was excreted in the breast milk, but the breast-fed infant had very low olanzapine concentrations, which did not result in any adverse effects.

Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials for diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in adults. A blinded study.

The aim of the present study was to examine the clinical utility of complex auditory brainstem response (c-ABR) and investigate if c-ABR is helpful in the diagnostic procedure. Thirty-one adult psychiatric patients, thoroughly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n=16), ADHD (n=8), or schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) (n=7) and 15 healthy controls (HC), were blindly assessed with SensoDetect BERA. This c-ABR correctly identified psychiatric diagnoses in 4 patients (13%) and provided partially correct diagnoses in 11 more patients. Of the 15 HC, 6 were misclassified as psychiatric patients. The Cohen´s kappa coefficient (κ) was substantial for HC (κ=0.67), fair for SSD (κ=0.37), slight for ADHD (κ=0.09) and without agreement in ASD (κ=-0.03). In conclusion, we found the c-ABR method unhelpful and unreliable as a tool in clinical diagnostics.

Sukhareva--Prior to Asperger and Kanner.

As early as 1926, the Kiev-based child psychiatrist Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva (Груня Ефимовна Сухарева) (1891-1981) published a detailed description of autistic traits in a number of children in a scientific German psychiatry and neurology journal. She initially used the term "schizoid (eccentric) psychopathy" but later replaced it with "autistic (pathological avoidant) psychopathy" to describe the clinical picture of autism. Her original article was available almost two decades before the case reports of Asperger and Kanner; nevertheless, Sukhareva's pioneer work has been greatly overlooked. Here we present her description of autistic psychopathy in relation to the DSM-5 criteria of today.

Minor physical anomalies in adults with autism spectrum disorder and healthy controls.

Minor Physical Anomalies (MPAs) are subtle abnormalities of the head, face, and limbs, without significant cosmetic or functional impact to the individual. They are assumed to represent external markers of developmental deviations during foetal life. MPAs have been suggested to indicate severity in mental illness and constitute external markers for atypical brain development. Higher frequencies of MPAs can be found in children with autism. The aims of the present study were to examine the prevalence and patterns of MPAs in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to investigate whether MPAs are associated with symptom severity and overall functioning. Fifty adults with ASD and intelligence within the normal range and 53 healthy controls were examined with the Waldrop scale, an instrument for assessing MPAs. Face and feet were photographed enabling blinded assessment. Significant differences between the ASD and the control group were found on the MPA total scores, and also in the craniofacial region scores. Moreover, the shape of the ears was associated with autistic traits, in the ASD group. High MPA total scores were associated with poorer functioning. The findings suggest a link between MPAs, autistic traits, and level of functioning. Assessment of MPAs may assist in the diagnostic procedure of psychiatric disorders.

Brief Report: alterations in cerebral blood flow as assessed by PET/CT in adults with autism spectrum disorder with normal IQ.

Specific biological markers for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have not yet been established. Functional studies have shown abnormalities in the anatomo-functional connectivity of the limbic-striatal "social" brain. This study aimed to investigate regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) at rest. Thirteen patients with ASD of normal intelligence and ten IQ-, sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent PET/CT using [1-(11)C]butanol, a perfusion tracer. As compared to HC, ASD showed significant CBF increases in the right parahippocampal, posterior cingulate, primary visual and temporal cortex, putamen, caudatus, substantia nigra and cerebellum. No statistically significant correlation between CBF and IQ was found. The limbic, posterior associative and cerebellar cortices showed increased blood flow in ASD, confirming previous findings about the neurobiology of ASD.

The Swedish version of the Ritvo autism and asperger diagnostic scale: revised (RAADS-R). A validation study of a rating scale for adults.

There is a paucity of diagnostic instruments for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Ritvo Autism and Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R), an 80-item self-rating scale designed to assist clinicians diagnosing ASD in adults. It was administered to 75 adults with ASD and 197 comparison cases. Also, a subset completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Three out of four subscales had high internal consistency. Sensitivity was 91% and specificity was 93%. The ASD subjects had significantly higher mean scores on all subscales. ASD females had higher scores than ASD males on the sensory motor subscale, a dimension not included in the AQ. RAADS-R showed promising test re-test reliability.