PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C Bursztejn

Publications and source records attributed to C Bursztejn.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Clinical guidelines for the screening and the diagnosis of autism and pervasive developmental disorders].

UNLABELLED: Autism is the best defined category among PDD. Its high prevalence, its onset in very young children and its persistence in adulthood arise many questions about early screening and early diagnosis. The aim of the study was to identify professional best practices about screening and diagnosis of autism in order to propose clinical guidelines and actions for the future. Scientific experts and parents take part to this procedure. Literature and previous guidelines were analyzed, experts in various fields were interviewed, a national study about the medical practices of the diagnosis of autism was made and questionnaires were send to 1600 psychiatrists and pediatricians. Guidelines built around 2 levels were proposed about screening and diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Diagnosis needs a multidisciplinary approach, validated instruments and more communication between professionals and parents. Finally one of the more important aims of the diagnosis of autism is to facilitate intervention program.

Autistic Disorder↗

[Development of long term memory in the child].

The relatively recent development of research on memory has considerably improved knowledge on the subject. The cognitive approach allowed to consider memory as a multiform phenomenon, implicating separate processes and based on independent systems. Memory presently appears as an active process, beginning to get organized as soon as the first interactions between child and environment. Recent research data show that infants memory seems to present specific characteristics, different from those of older subjects. This is a further argument to the theory of independent mnemonic systems, growing at different periods of development.

Age Factors↗

[Short term memory and severe language disorders in the child].

Memory, and particularly short-term memory or "working memory" (Baddeley), is involved in language acquisition in children. We have studied short-term memory, with verbal-and non verbal tests, of 8 children suffering from developmental dysphasia compared with other ones, matched in terms of age and performance I.Q. (W.I.S.C.-R.). The digit span did not significantly differ in the two groups, while the visuo-spatial span was lower in the dysphasic group. The memorization of a list of monosyllabic words by dysphasic children was poor in the absence of visual presentation and improved by it. Differences between dysphasic and control-children are unlikely to be due to speech rate which does not significantly differ from one group to the other one. The results suggest the existence, in language disordered children, of cognitive functions disorders much more important than those directly involved in the speech production.

Case-Control Studies↗

[Intrafamilial bone marrow donation: the role of the parents].

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is the last chance of recovery for some children suffering from malignant hemopathy or congenital blood disease. BMT with related donor radically alters previous family relationships: each member of the nuclear family becomes actively involved. Parents and siblings all undergo HLA typing. Only 30% of those who would benefit from bone marrow transplantation are lucky enough to have an HLA matched related donor, brother or sister. Our retrospective study concerned related donors and their parents. This paper reports the parents study. It was carried out at Strasbourg University Hospital. Parents were invited to speak about the child's illness, the graft reasons and their own position to regarding the choice of donor. Semi-structured interviews were used and their content analysed. The results highlight the expression by the parents of the need to maintain some control over the action which will save their child and establish an other gift system to keep their parental status.

Adolescent↗

[Fragile X chromosome in autism and psychotic disorders in children].

Three cases of fragile X (fra X) have been identified in a systematic survey of 30 boys, aged 3 to 14, with infantile autism or psychotic disorders, associated with mental retardation. Only one of these children exhibited a dysmorphy characterizing the Martin-Bell syndrome. Two fra X cases fulfilled the DSM III criteria for autism; none corresponded to the Kanner's description of infantile autism. The prevalence of fra X among children with psychotic disorders (6%) is much higher than in the general population; however it is close to the prevalence observed in non psychotic mentally retarded patients. Given the inconsistency of the somatic phenotype, the screening should benefit from the recent discovery of abnormal methylation of DNA.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗

[Epidemiological study of maternal depression as a risk factor in the developing of early childhood psychosis].

After reviewing epidemiological literature on the relationships between depression in parents and onset of a psychiatric disturbance in children as well as investigations of the interactions between a depressed mother and her infant, the authors discuss the psychoanalytical concepts of these interactions and the findings of their research. This epidemiological research is based on the assumption that depression in the mother during pregnancy and the first few months of the post-partum constitutes a risk factor for the onset of an early psychosis in the child. This research is a comparative study between a group of mothers with early onset psychotic children and a group of mothers with non patient children, the age and sex of the children in both groups being equally distributed. The methodology includes two instruments aimed at a retrospective assessment of mothers' depression: the SADS-LA questionnaire and a standardized scoring system for semi-structured interviews investigating the mother's feelings during pregnancy and early development of her baby. Results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between a major depressive condition in the mother during pregnancy and/or during the first year of the infant's life and the onset of an autism in the child. It might be that major depressive conditions starting before delivery could by themselves account for the risk. Depression in the mother therefore constitutes a risk factor for early psychosis, the relative risk being about four. This study also emphasizes particular features of the mother's depressive conditions: difficulties to accept the real child, difficulties in perceiving the infant's psychic evolution, decrease of interactive skills. The statistically significant relationship in no way points to a linear causal relationship, which hypothesis seems to be negated by the statistical findings of this research.

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive↗

[Paradoxes in adolescence: break and continuity].

The psychopathological studies on adolescence underline the paradoxical behaviours during this period of life. After the analysis of its concept we show in which way the paradox helps to maintain the continuity of psychological life during the crisis. Thus impossible choices which are part of the contradiction in adolescents be avoided. It will be necessary to provoke the emergence of the paradox from the contradictions linked with hospitalization through on hospitalization to make the most of the letter in the therapeutic process.

Adolescent↗

Serotonin metabolism and other biochemical parameters in infantile autism. A controlled study of 22 autistic children.

The serotonin metabolism was extensively studied in 22 couples of autistic children and age- and sex-matched controls. Histamine, calcium, and uric acid were also measured in urine and whole blood or plasma. Autistics and controls did not differ in histamine, and only minor changes were noticed in calcium content. According to previous reports, serotonin levels were often, but not always, elevated in the blood of autistic children. Based on data including urinary serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, platelet serotonin uptake and efflux, platelet monoamine oxidase and glutathione peroxidase activities, and uric acid and plasma tryptophan, the origin(s) of such hyperserotonemia in autism appear(s) to be of metabolic origin, i.e., a decreased catabolism and/or an increased biosynthesis of serotonin.

Adolescent↗

Catecholamines metabolism in infantile autism: a controlled study of 22 autistic children.

In a group of 22 autistic children aged 5 to 16 years and a group of normal controls matched for age and sex, catecholamines metabolism was investigated in plasma, platelets, and urine. This investigation was part of a research project in which several biological parameters (including serotonin) were explored simultaneously in the same children. In the autistic group, epinephrine and norepinephrine were significantly elevated in plasma, while epinephrin, norepinephrine, and dopamine were significantly lower in isolated platelets. No significant difference was found between the two groups for the urinary excretion of epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, DOPAC, and MHPG. Other differences between the two groups in the statistical correlations of several biochemical parameters also suggest abnormalities of bioamine metabolism in the platelets of autistic children.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗

[Early infantile autism and its biochemistry].

In the first part of this paper the different orientations of biochemical research in early infantile autism are recalled. The most significant results of these studies concerning the dopaminergic, noradrenergic and indolaminergic (serotonin, efflux, uptake) systems as well as the various enzymatic complexes are also reviewed. In the second part, the methodologic problems which arise in biochemical research in the field of autism are addressed.

Autistic Disorder↗

[Transitory dyslexia related to hematoma of the left temporal lobe in a 14-year-old adolescent].

A hematoma limited to the median region of the second left temporal convolution was the factor of an involvement of written language which rapidly set in in a 14 years old adolescent. The type of disorders observed are quite superimposable on dyslexia in children. After evacuation of the hematoma, the reading disorders disappeared, as was proved by normalization of the leximetric test.

Adolescent↗

[Relation between endocrinology and psychiatry. Some recent developments].

Relations between Endocrinology and Psychiatry are developing in two main directions: Behavioural effects of hormones. After the effects of peripheral hormones, recent works are concerned with A.C.T.H. and Antidiuretic Hormone (which interfere with memory process) and with Hypothalamic Peptides (which might have psychotropic properties, independant of their endocrine regulation function). -Correlations between psychiatric syndroms and endocrine disorders. In some mentally depressed patients, disorders of the hypothalamic control of Coricotrophin, Growth Hormone and Thyreo-stimulating Hormone, have been observed. As many psychotropic drugs can influence the secretion of Prolactin, a systematic survey of this hormone in various mental illnesses, is suggested.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

[Disorders of catecholamine metabolism in infantile autism. Comparative study of 22 autistic children].

In a group of 22 autistic children aged 5 to 16 y., and a group of normal controls matched for age and sex, catecholamines metabolism has been investigated in plasma, platelets and urine. This investigation was part of a research project in which several biological parameters (including serotonin) were simultaneously explored in the same children. In the autistic group, epinephrine and norepinephrine and dopamine were significantly lower in isolated platelets, and no significant difference was found between the two groups for the urinary excretion of epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, DOPAC and MHPG. Other differences between the two groups in the statistical correlations of several biochemical parameters (plasma norepinephrine and dopamine with platelet MAO activity, platelet norepinephrine with platelet dopamine, platelet dopamine, platelet dopamine with platelet serotonin) also suggest abnormalities of bioamine metabolism in the platelets of autistic children.

Adolescent↗