Autistic Disorder Research Articles

Three year outcomes in infants with a family history of autism and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Most research on early outcomes in infants with a family history (FH) of autism has focussed on categorically defined autism, although some have language and developmental delays. Less is known about outcomes in infants with a FH of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Infants with and without a FH of autism and/or ADHD, due to a first-degree relative with either or both conditions, were recruited at 5 or 10months. Three year outcomes were characterised using latent profile analysis (LPA) across measures of cognitive ability, adaptive functioning and autism, ADHD and anxiety traits (n=131). We additionally ran an LPA using only autism and ADHD measures, and the broader LPA in an independent cohort (n=139) and in both cohorts combined (n=270). A Low Developmental Level+High Behavioural Concerns class had elevated autism, ADHD and anxiety scores, low cognitive and adaptive function, and included all but one child with autism. A Low Developmental Level+Typical Behaviour class had average cognitive ability and typical behaviour but low adaptive function. A Typical Developmental Level+Some Behavioural Concerns class had average cognitive and adaptive function but slightly elevated behaviour scores. A High Developmental Level+Typical Behaviour class had above average cognitive ability and typical behaviour. All four LPAs identified classes characterised by combinations of either, or both, Low Development Level and elevated behaviour scores, as well as a typically developing class. No classes had elevated autism or ADHD traits in isolation. Some infants with a FH of autism or ADHD have atypical developmental and behavioural outcomes, but do not show strong autism or ADHD traits in isolation. The field needs to recalibrate aims and methods to embrace the broader transdiagnostic pattern of outcomes seen in these infants.

The extent of the impact of the surrounding environment and genetic factors on the pregnant mother and her child and its relationship to the child’s injury with autism disorder

Autism disorder is a complex condition that involves problems with communication and behavior and has no clear cause. but studies suggest that genes can work along with influences from the environment to influence development in ways that lead to autism. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of autism disorder in the city of Al-Bayda and the possible causes of its occurrence. The study population comprised 90 participants (69 male and 21 female, age ranges, 2-15 years) At baseline, autism disorder was more prevalent in males than female (77 % vs. 23%). Meanwhile, the prevalence of autism disorder increased with advanced the mother’s age (31%, 69%, among the mothers who were 19 to 35, 36 to 51 years of age, respectively), including the mother's conditions during pregnancy, where the percentage of autism baby deliver from mother suffered from a psychological condition was 52%, mothers constantly carried mobile phones 48%, and mother suffered from diseases during pregnancy 26%. Another cause of autism are environmental factors, as the percentage of children who watch TV constantly was 83%. Genetic factors play important rule to increase the chance of autism incidence, where 8% of autism cases came from parents of consanguinity with 33%.

Can Computational Intelligence Model Phenomenal Consciousness?

Consciousness and intelligence are properties that can be misunderstood as necessarily dependent. The term artificial intelligence and the kind of problems it managed to solve in recent years has been shown as an argument to establish that machines experience some sort of consciousness. Following Russell’s analogy, if a machine can do what a conscious human being does, the likelihood that the machine is conscious increases. However, the social implications of this analogy are catastrophic. Concretely, if rights are given to entities that can solve the kind of problems that a neurotypical person can, does the machine have potentially more rights than a person that has a disability? For example, the autistic syndrome disorder spectrum can make a person unable to solve the kind of problems that a machine solves. We believe the obvious answer is no, as problem-solving does not imply consciousness. Consequently, we will argue in this paper how phenomenal consciousness, at least, cannot be modeled by computational intelligence and why machines do not possess phenomenal consciousness, although they can potentially develop a higher computational intelligence than human beings. In order to do so, we try to formulate an objective measure of computational intelligence and study how it presents in human beings, animals, and machines. Analogously, we study phenomenal consciousness as a dichotomous variable and how it is distributed in humans, animals, and machines.

Retrospective Comparison of Patients Evaluated for Pediatric Autoimmune Encephalitis with Typical and Atypical Premorbid Neuropsychiatric Development.

Patients with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) (i.e. autism, developmental delay, early-onset psychiatric or seizure disorders) increasingly seek evaluation of new or exacerbated symptoms concerning for autoimmune encephalitis (AE). Clinical AE evaluation can be challenging in NDD patients with symptom overlap between anti-neuronal autoimmunity and baseline atypical neurodevelopment. This study sought to explore differences in AE features by neurodevelopmental status. This retrospective chart review included 67 children with typical development (TD) or NDD evaluated for AE at the authors' institution. AE diagnosis included seronegative AE or seropositive AE with anti-NMDAR or anti-GAD antibodies. Reported AE clinical domains, symptom onset acuity, and treatment response were compared between three groups: (1) TD children with AE (TD-AE, N = 24); (2) NDD children with AE (NDD-AE, N = 21); and (3) NDD children with a non-AE diagnosis following appropriate workup (NDD-nonAE, N = 22). Children with AE had a greater number of reported clinical domains than non-AE children with NDD (p < 0.0001) regardless of baseline developmental status. There were no observed differences in reported domains between TD-AE and NDD-AE groups. Onset acuity differed across the three groups (p = 0.04). No treatment response differences were observed between groups. NDD children with AE had a comparable number of reported clinical domains relative to TD children and a similar treatment response. NDD patients with AE had a greater number of reported clinical domains than their NDD peers without an AE diagnosis. These findings suggest that AE is a multi-domain process in both TD and NDD children.

Epimutation detection in the clinical context: guidelines and a use case from a new Bioconductor package

ABSTRACT Epimutations are rare alterations of the normal DNA methylation pattern at specific loci, which can lead to rare diseases. Methylation microarrays enable genome-wide epimutation detection, but technical limitations prevent their use in clinical settings: methods applied to rare diseases’ data cannot be easily incorporated to standard analyses pipelines, while epimutation methods implemented in R packages (ramr) have not been validated for rare diseases. We have developed epimutacions, a Bioconductor package (https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/epimutacions.html). epimutacions implements two previously reported methods and four new statistical approaches to detect epimutations, along with functions to annotate and visualize epimutations. Additionally, we have developed an user-friendly Shiny app to facilitate epimutations detection (https://github.com/isglobal-brge/epimutacionsShiny) to non-bioinformatician users. We first compared the performance of epimutacions and ramr packages using three public datasets with experimentally validated epimutations. Methods in epimutacions had a high performance at low sample sizes and outperformed methods in ramr. Second, we used two general population children cohorts (INMA and HELIX) to determine the technical and biological factors that affect epimutations detection, providing guidelines on how designing the experiments or preprocessing the data. In these cohorts, most epimutations did not correlate with detectable regional gene expression changes. Finally, we exemplified how epimutacions can be used in a clinical context. We run epimutacions in a cohort of children with autism disorder and identified novel recurrent epimutations in candidate genes for autism. Overall, we present epimutacions a new Bioconductor package for incorporating epimutations detection to rare disease diagnosis and provide guidelines for the design and data analyses.

The contribution of sleep and co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions to quality of life in children with epilepsy

BackgroundHealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children with epilepsy (CWE) is multifactorial and can be affected not only by epilepsy-specific variables but also co-occurring conditions such as sleep disturbances, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While highly prevalent in CWE, these conditions are underdiagnosed despite having a significant impact on HRQOL. Sleep problems have a complex relationship with epilepsy and neurodevelopmental characteristics. However, little is known about how these issues interact and contribute to HRQOL. ObjectivesThe current study aims to explore the relationship between sleep and neurodevelopmental characteristics on HRQOL in CWE. Methods36 CWE aged 4–16 years old were recruited from two hospitals and asked to wear an actiwatch for a period of 14 days and caregivers completed a series of questionnaires assessing co-occurrences and epilepsy-specific variables. ResultsA high proportion of CWE (78.13%) presented significant sleep problems. Informant-reported sleep problems were significantly predictive of HRQOL above seizure severity and the number of antiseizure medications. Interestingly, informant-reported sleep problems were no longer significantly predictive of HRQOL when neurodevelopmental characteristics were considered, indicating a possible mediating effect. Similarly, actigraphy-defined sleep (variability in sleep onset latency) displayed a similar effect but only for ADHD characteristics, whereas autistic characteristics and variability in sleep onset latency continued to exert an individual effect on HRQOL. ConclusionThese data from our study shed light on the complicated relationship between sleep, neurodevelopmental characteristics and epilepsy. Findings suggest that the impact of sleep on HRQOL in CWE is possibly mediated by neurodevelopmental characteristics. Furthermore, the impact this triangular relationship exerts on HRQOL is dependent on the type of tool used to measure sleep. These findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to epilepsy management.

Association between heavy metals exposure (cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury) and child autistic disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Studies have found that toxic heavy metals exposure could induce the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and is of epigenetic effect, which might be associated with the occurrence of Autistic Disorder (ASD). This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to elucidate the association between exposure to 4 heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic(As), and mercury (Hg), and the occurrence of ASD in children. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library, from their inception to October 2022, for epidemiological investigations that explore the association between exposure to Cd, Pb, As, or Hg and the occurrence of child ASD. A total of 53 studies were included, involving 5,054 individuals aged less than 18 (2,533 ASD patients and 2,521 healthy controls). Compared with the healthy controls, in hair and blood tests, concentrations of the 4 heavy metals were significantly higher in the ASD group than in the healthy control group, and the differences in Pb, arsenic and Hg were statistically significant (P < 0.05). In the urine test, concentrations of arsenic and Hg were significantly higher in the ASD group than in the healthy control group (P < 0.05), while the results of Cd and Pb were opposite to those of arsenic and Hg (P > 0.05). Subgroup analysis for geographic regions showed that ASD patients in Asia and Europe had higher concentrations of the 4 heavy metals, compared with the healthy controls, in which the differences in Pb, arsenic, and Hg were statistically significant (P < 0.05), while in North America, the healthy controls had higher Cd, arsenic, and Hg concentrations (P > 0.05). Compared with the healthy control group, the ASD group had higher concentrations of Cd, Pb, arsenic, and Hg. These 4 heavy metals play different roles in the occurrence and progression of ASD. Moreover, there is significant heterogeneity among the included studies due to controversies about the study results among different countries and regions and different sources of detection materials. The results of this study firmly support the policies to limit heavy metals exposure, especially among pregnant women and young children, so as to help reduce the incidence of ASD.

Improving Intervention Strategies for Autism Spectrum Disorders by Altering the Design of the Diagnostic Procedure

Since the identification of the childhood disorder Autism by Dr Leo Kanner in 1943 and Dr Hans Asperger in 1944, our understanding of this condition has evolved. At first it was described as an attachment disorder, then it was described as a psycho-social-educational disorder, which is largely where our thinking on the topic has remained. This thinking determines the interventions applied. There is little expectation by physicians, parents or educators of significant emergence from ASD. It is common for parents to report that they receive no real advice as to what to do after the diagnosis other than placement of the child in a special school and to start Speech Therapy. The increasing incidence of ASD (1 in 44 births: CDC) means the mounting pressure on service providers is unmanageable. However there have been changes in thinking that brought some promise of brighter outcomes. For example since the 1990’s there has been increasing appreciation of the role of the biome, with reports of positive outcomes following metabolic interventions. Approaches have arisen that offer positive outcomes and have brought a greater understanding of the nature of ASD. This presentation proposes a change to the way the diagnostic protocol is executed in keeping with a more pervasive view of ASD. A new approach is needed in line with research and new developments, so that at the time of diagnosis parents get pointers for actions to follow that can greatly benefit the child, since all agree that early intervention brings better outcomes.

Chronic inhibition of astrocytic aquaporin-4 induces autistic-like behavior in control rat offspring similar to maternal exposure to valproic acid

Social communication and interaction deficits, memory impairment, and anxiety-like behavior are characterized in many people identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A thorough understanding of the specific aspects that contribute to the deficiencies associated with ASD can aid research into the etiology of the disorder while also providing targets for more effective intervention. As part of the ASD pathophysiology, alterations in synaptogenesis and abnormal network connections were seen in high-order brain areas, which control social behavior and communication. The early emergence of microglia during nervous system development may contribute to synaptic dysfunction and the pathobiology of ASD. Since aquaporin-4 (AQP4) appears to be required for the basic procedures of synapse activation, certain behavioral and cognitive impairments as well as disturbance in water homeostasis might likely arise from AQP4 deficiency. Here, through the measurement of the water content of the hippocampus and behavioral experiments we aim to explore the contribution of astrocytic AQP4 to the autism-like behavior induced by prenatal valproic acid (VPA) exposure and whether inhibition of AQP4 per se can induce autistic-like behavior in control rats.Microinjection of TGN-020 (10 µM, i.c.v), a specific AQP4 inhibitor, for 7 successive days before behavioral tasks from postnatal day 28 to 35 revealed that inhibition of AQP4 in the control offspring caused lower social interaction and locomotor activity, higher anxiety, and decreased ability to recognize novel objects, very similar to the behavioral changes observed in offspring prenatally exposed to VPA. However, VPA-exposed offspring treated with TGN-020, showed no further remarkable behavioral impairments than those detected in the autistic-like rats. Furthermore, both control offspring treated with TGN-020 and offspring exposed to VPA had a considerable accumulation of water in their hippocampi. But AQP4 inhibition did not affect the water status of the autistic-like rats.The findings of this study revealed that control offspring exhibited similar hippocampal water retention and behavioral impairments that were observed in maternal VPA-exposed offspring following inhibition of astrocytic AQP4, whereas, in autistic-like rats, it did not produce any significant change in water content and behaviors. Findings suggest that AQP4 deficiency could be associated with autistic disorder and may be a potential pharmaceutical target for treating autism in the future.

Deep learning-based feature selection and prediction system for autism spectrum disorder using a hybrid meta-heuristics approach

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complicated neurodevelopment disorder that is becoming more common day by day around the world. The literature that uses machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) approaches gained interest due to their ability to increase the accuracy of diagnosing disorders and reduce the physician’s workload. These artificial intelligence-based applications can learn and detect patterns automatically through the collection of data. ML approaches are used in various applications where the traditional algorithms have failed to obtain better results. The major advantage of the ML algorithm is its ability to produce consistent and better performance predictions with the help of non-linear and complex relationships among the features. In this paper, deep learning with a meta-heuristic (MH) approach is proposed to perform the feature extraction and feature selection processes. The proposed feature selection phase has two sub-phases, such as DL-based feature extraction and MH-based feature selection. The effective convolutional neural network (CNN) model is implemented to extract the core features that will learn the relevant data representation in a lower-dimensional space. The hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm called Seagull-Elephant Herding Optimization Algorithm (SEHOA) is used to select the most relevant and important features from the CNN extracted features. Autism disorder patients are identified using long-term short-term memory as a classifier. This will detect the ASD using the fMRI image dataset ABIDE (Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange) and obtain promising results. There are five evaluation metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, and area under the curve (AUC) used. The validated results show that the proposed model performed better, with an accuracy of 98.6%.

Theoretical aspects of diagnostics of autism disorder in children and its typology

Theoretical aspects of diagnostics of autism disorder in children and its typology

서번트 증후군을 지닌 자폐성장애 학생에 대한 교육전문가의 경험

The purpose of this study was to examine the educational experiences and perceptions of ASD and Savant Syndrome by special education experts. For the purpose of this study, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine educational experts who had more than 20 years of experience working with autistic disorders. The participants worked at various types of educational institutions such as special education schools, special classroom and child development centers, and were able to present various and rich experiences. The interviews were conducted through in-depth interviews and focus group interviews, the contents of these interviews were then analyzed according to the continuous comparative analysis method. As a result of analyzing the data a collection of 5 core themes and 16 subthemes were derived. The five core themes are as follows: 1) Savant syndrome, which I didn’t know well, now that I think about it, it was Savant syndrome maybe; 2) Savant syndrome is as diverse as the spectrum; 3) the difficulties related to autistic disorder preceded amazing abilities; 4) parents’ expectations toward their children’s special abilities are very diverse; and 5) Educational support measures that can help students’ special talents become meaningful abilities for students with ASD and Savant syndrome. Based on the research results, the similarities and differences between teachers’ and parents’ experiences of students with autism and Savant syndrome were discussed, in addition, future educational supports were suggested.

Electroencephalography Microstate Class D is a Brain Marker of Subjective Sleep Quality for College Students with High Habitual Sleep Efficiency.

Subjective sleep quality is an individual's subjective sleep feeling, and its effective evaluation is the premise of improving sleep quality. However, people with autism or mental disorders often experience difficulties in verbally expressing their subjective sleep quality. To solve the above problem, this study provides a non-verbal and convenient brain feature to assess subjective sleep quality. Reportedly, microstates are often used to characterize the patterns of functional brain activity in humans. The occurrence frequency of microstate class D is an important feature in the insomnia population. We therefore hypothesize that the occurrence frequency of microstate class D is a physiological indicator of subjective sleep quality. To test this hypothesis, we recruited college students from China as participants [N = 61, mean age = 20.84 years]. The Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale was used to measure subjective sleep quality and habitual sleep efficiency, and the state characteristics of the brain at this time were assessed using closed eyes resting-state brain microstate class D. The occurrence frequency of EEG microstate class D was positively associated with subjective sleep quality (r = 0.32, p < 0.05). Further analysis of the moderating effect showed that the occurrence frequency of microstate class D was significantly and positively correlated with subjective sleep quality in the high habitual sleep efficiency group. However, the relationship was not significant in the low sleep efficiency group (βsimple = 0.63, p < 0.001). This study shows that the occurrence frequency of microstate class D is a physiological indicator of assessing subjective sleep quality levels in the high sleep efficiency group. This study provides brain features for assessing subjective sleep quality of people with autism and mental disorders who cannot effectively describe their subjective feelings.

Improved Family Coping Caring for Autistic Disorder Children with Knowledge Education: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Cognitive, communication, social interaction, behavior patterns, and activity limitations in autistic children become a source of stress for parents. Parents' negative assessment of autistic children leads to maladaptive coping and results in inappropriate parenting behavior. Objective: This study focuses on evaluating parents' knowledge of autistic disorders and their relationship to coping in caring for children with autism. Method: Cross-sectional study is the design of this study. Involving 22 respondents, namely parents of children with autism whose children attend education at Special Schools (SLB) in Malang City. The data collection instrument was developed based on the Knowledge about Childhood Autism Among Health Workers (KCAHW) questionnaire to obtain data on family knowledge variables. Family coping variables using McCubbin's F-COPES questionnaire. Both questionnaires are tools that have been tested for reliability. Analystsare statisticians using the Spearman Rank test with a significance of 5%. Results: 64% of Parisipans had high knowledge of autism and 14% of parents had maladaptive coping. The results of statistical tests found that the level of knowledge about autism was related to family coping mechanisms in children with autisme disorder (p-value 0.003; r 0.599). Conclusion: Adaptive coping of families with autistic disorder children increases with good parental knowledge. Therefore, health education about autism and its care is always informed to the public to prevent maladaptive coping in the care of children with autism disorders in the family.&#x0D; &#x0D; Latar belakang: Keterbatasan kognitif, komunikasi, interaksi sosial, pola perilaku, dan aktivitas pada anak autis menjadi sumber stres bagi orang tua. Penilaian negatif orang tua terhadap anak autis menyebabkan koping maladaptif dan berdampak pada perilaku pengasuhan yang tidak tepat. Tujuan: Penelitian ini berfokus pada evaluasi pengetahuan orang tua tentang gangguan autis dan hubungannya dengan koping dalam merawat anak autisme. Metode: Studi cross sectional merupakan rancangan penelitian ini. Melibatkan 22 responden, yaitu orang tua dari anak dengan Autis yang anaknya mengikuti Pendidikan di Sekolah Luar Biasa (SLB) di Kota Malang. Instrument pengumpulan data dikembangkan berdasarkan kuesioner Knowledge about Childhood Autism Among Health Workers (KCAHW) untuk memperoleh data variabel pengetahuan keluarga. Variabel koping keluarga menggunakan kuisioner F-COPES McCubbin. Kedua kuesioner tersebut merupakan alat yang sudah diuji reabilitasnya. Analisis statistik menggunakan Rank Spearman test dengan signifikansi 5%. Hasil: Partisipan sebanyak 64% memiliki pengetahuan yang tinggi tentang gangguan autism dan masih terdapat orang tua yang memiliki koping maladaptif 14%,. Hasil uji statistik menemukan bahwa tingkat pengetahuan tentang autisme berhubungan dengan mekanisme koping keluarga pada anak dengan gangguan autisme (p-value 0,003; r 0,599). Simpulan: Koping adaptif keluarga yang memiliki anak gangguan autis meningkat dengan pengetahuan orang tua yang baik. Edukasi tentang autisme dan perawatannya perlu selalu diinformasikan kepada masyarakat untuk mencegah koping maladaptif dalam perawatan anak dengan gangguan autisme di keluarga.

Distance Learning for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

One of the impacts of the covid 19 pandemic is that schools are closed, and students are asked to study at home. This condition affects students with autistic spectrum disorders. Distance learning (PJJ) makes students with autistic spectrum disorders uncomfortable, often tantrums, and become more frustrated. This condition is why researchers examine the implementation of distance learning for children with autistic spectrum disorders. This study aims to analyze PJJ in children with autistic spectrum disorders. This research used a qualitative approach. Data collection was carried out using interview and questionnaire methods. The subjects of this study were teachers of children with special needs for children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) in schools. The analysis used qualitative analysis. The results showed that the PJJ online learning process mostly used WhatsApp. It is due to limitations on facilities for online learning, limited knowledge and skills of parents to use PJJ process facilities, and some teachers who need to be more skilled in carrying out the PJJ process. Online training or seminars are needed as an approach to parents to provide the understanding and improve teacher skills in PJJ. The results of this study are expected to facilitate parents and teachers in PJJ, especially for children with autistic disorders.

Problems of medical and social care for children with autism spectrum disorders

The aim is to identify, through a sociological survey of legitimate representatives of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the problems that they face in their lives, to further improve the provision of medical and social assistance.&#x0D; Materials and methods. A survey of legal representatives of ASD minors (aged 1–11 years) was conducted.&#x0D; Results. The study of the living conditions of a child with autism in the family, the assessment by parents of his state of health, problems arising in the registration of disability, in the provision of medical and rehabilitation assistance and issues of medical and social support made it possible to determine the situation of this group of the child population in modern medical and social conditions. The main problems were the collection of a large number of documents during the registration of disability, the long wait for the day of examination, the remoteness of the location of the medical and social examination bureau, the lack of specialist doctors, the lack of consideration of the individual needs of the child when conducting individual rehabilitation programs, the need to contact various institutions and departments, the lack of medical and social assistance, violation of rights in the provision of medical services to a child with autism.&#x0D; Conclusion. It is necessary both to expand research aimed at studying etiopathogenetic factors and developing strategies for the prevention and early diagnosis of autistic disorders in childhood, destigmatization, and educational work in society.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy for Individuals With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review

Children, young people, and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are known to be at risk of experiencing high rates of traumatic events. EMDR is an evidence-based psychological therapy for trauma and mental health conditions in the general population. A systematic search was conducted to find research studies using EMDR with individuals with certain NDDs across the lifespan. A total of 15 studies were included in this review, 13 of which were case studies/series. Although findings are inconclusive as to whether EMDR can be effective for individuals with NDDs, it is encouraging that all the studies included in the review reported a reduction in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. However, more robust research examining the effectiveness of EMDR for people with NDDs is needed.

Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among parents of children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundAcceptance of COVID-19 vaccination was noticed to be less common among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. This study aimed to explore the beliefs and willingness of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders about COVID-19 vaccine and understand how certain factors influencing the vaccine decision-making process differ between them and other parents’ groups.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted between August to November 2021. An Arabic online survey was distributed in August 2021 to collect the study’s data. 400 parents from all the major regions in Saudi Arabia participated in and shared their beliefs about the new COVID-19 vaccination for their children.ResultsOut of 400 participants, 381 of them were eligible to answer the survey (95.2%). The total number of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorder was 158 (41.5%), was compared to responses of parents of heathy children 223 (58.5%). 85 (53.8%) of them were ready to vaccinate their children with COVID-19 vaccine. While 36 (22.8%) were hesitant, the rest 37 (23.4%) did not want to vaccinate their children at all. Only a small number 16 (10.1%) have beliefs of vaccines as a cause of their child’s neurodevelopmental disorder. A total of 79 out of 131 responses were received from both parents’ groups. Fear of long-term side-effects was the most common reason reported by 41 responders out of 64 (64.06%) from parents of healthy children and 38 responders out of 67 (56.71%) from parents of diagnosed children. Another reason reported by parents of younger children in both groups was the child’s age. Having a healthcare relative worker was significantly associated with the vaccine decision making (p < .001).ConclusionThe acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders was low compared to the parents of healthy children in Saudi Arabia. Authorities can benefit from this study results to offer more accessible information about the vaccine importance and safety to the targeted population.

The Use of Citicoline in Ophthalmology: An Educational Article

Citicoline is a safe form of the choline has been increasingly grouped with the water-soluble B vitamins. It has been increasingly used with noticeable benefits in the treatment of several pediatric and neuro-psychiatric disorders including, cerebral palsy, cognitive impairment, autism disorders, Rett syndrome, and kernicterus. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of citicoline research progress relevant to the field of ophthalmology.

P-790 Are children born in England after subfertility and fertility treatment at increased risk of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?

Abstract Abstract withdrawn by the authors