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July 1, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR JO ELLEN HINCK
IN MO
This was an interesting question, Brittany. I had never heard
of Asperger
Syndrome (AS), but you prompted me to do some investigating.
AS has been
described as a neurobiological disorder mainly found in young
children,
especially boys, ages 5-9. AS has been difficult to diagnose
and has been
commonly mis-diagnosed as attention deficit disorder (ADD),
attention
deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive
disorder
(OCD), etc. Children with the disorder appear to have trouble
with social
interactions and change of routines, but have normal, and
sometimes
advanced, intellectual development and vocabulary. Here are
some websites
that give some basic answers about AS
(http://users.wpi.edu/~trek/aspergers.html
and
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html).
For treatment, some
doctors suggest each child should be assessed on a case by
case basis
rather that initiating the same treatment for all individuals
with AS.
These treatments could include psychotherapy, parent education
and
training, behavioral modification, social skills training,
etc. From the
information I found, it appears there is little government
research
currently being conducted on AS.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR NHA LE IN TX
Hello Brittany,
I have studied Human Genetics in college and have
learned of a very informative and clinical website on human
diseases. The site is called online mendelian inheritance
in man (OMIM) and here's their brief description of
Asperger syndrome. You can use this site as reference for
other diseases later on. It might be difficult to
understand, but i hope it will be challenging, it is
belief that there are many forms of the disease depending
on the gene that is disrupted. Some is even located on the
X chromosome, other in chromosome 3 and 17.
"Asperger syndrome is considered to be a form of childhood
autism (see, e.g., 209850). The DSM-IV (American
Psychiatric Association, 1994) specifies several diagnostic
criteria for Asperger syndrome, which has many of the same
features as autism. In general, patients with Asperger
syndrome and autism exhibit qualitative impairment in
social interaction, as manifest by impairment in the use of
nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial
expression, body postures, and gestures, failure to develop
appropriate peer relationships, and lack of social sharing
or reciprocity. Patients also exhibit restricted,
repetitive and sterotyped patterns of behavior, interests,
and activities, including abnormal preoccupation with
certain activities and inflexible adherence to routines or
rituals. Asperger syndrome is primarily distinguished from
autism by the higher cognitive abilities and a more normal
and timely development of language and communicative
phrases. Gillberg et al. (2001) described the development
of the Asperger syndrome (and high-functioning autism)
Diagnostic Interview (ASDI), which they claimed has a
strong validity in the diagnosis of the disorder.
One form of Asperger syndrome (ASPG1) has been mapped to
chromosome 3q, and another, ASPG2 (608631), has been mapped
to chromosome 17p. Two X-linked forms, ASPGX1 (300494) and
ASPGX2 (300497), are associated with mutation in the NLGN3
gene (300336) and the NLGN4 gene (300427), respectively. "
For treatment, i'm not sure what methods are there, but
tender love and attention to these kids are among the top
priority. You can try surfing to check on many more sites
devoted to Asperger syndrome.
Hope this helps,
******************
A: FROM MENTOR SUSAN MODESITT,
MD IN KY
To Brittany regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Since I specialize
in women's cancers, I had to refresh my memory from medical
school. To
the best of my cursory review of the medical literature, this
syndrome
appears to be a variant of autism wherein affected persons
have greater
cognitive abilities than the typical autistic patient. Autism
is a rare
disorder that usually becomes apparent in early childhood
when children
fail develop normally, especially in language and in connecting
with
their family. If you are interested in either autism or Asperger's
syndrome (named after the physician that first described the
variant), I
would recommend looking in neurology or child psychiatry books
in the
library. Alternatively, you can do a literature search through
Pub Med
using those terms.
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A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON
IN IL
Hi, Brittany,
I had never heard of this syndrome, so I looked it up on google.
The following
url is a pretty good explanation of it in understandable terms.
Also, further
down on the page at this url, there is a second description
of the syndrome by
Lois Freisleben-Cook.
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html
Lois says this about treatment:
"Many of the weaknesses can be remediated with specific
types of therapy aimed
at teaching social and pragmatic skills. Anxiety leading to
significant rigidity
can be also treated medically. Although it is harder, adults
with Asperger's can
have relationships, families, happy and productive lives.
"
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