Post-Institutional Autistic Syndrome in Romanian Adoptees

Hoksbergen, R.A.C.; Laak, Jan ter; Rijk, Kathinka; Dijkum, Cor van; Stoutjesdijk, Felicia

doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0005-x

Cited by 83 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Consequently, one third of them developed what has been called postinstitutional autistic syndrome (Hoksbergen, ter Laak, Rijk, van Dijkum, & Stoutjesdijk, 2005). This syndrome includes stereotypic behaviors, an inability to identify human emotions, as well as disordered communication, language, cognition, and attachment (Ellis, Fisher, & Zaharie, 2004;Hoksbergen et al, 2005;Johnson, Browne, & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2006;Miller, Chan, Comfort, & Tirella, 2005;Wismer Fries, Ziegler, Kurian, Jacoris, & Pollak, 2005). Importantly, when these orphans were moved to an enriched environment provided by foster parents, their intelligence test scores, language development, social engagement and mental health improved (Nelson et al, 2007).…”

Section: Sensorimotor Deprivation Increases Autism Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: A randomized controlled trial.

Woo¹,

Leon²

2013

Behavioral Neuroscience

138

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Enriched sensorimotor environments enable rodents to compensate for a wide range of neurological challenges, including those induced in animal models of autism. Given the sensorimotor deficits in most children with autism, we attempted to translate that approach to their treatment. In a randomized controlled trial, 3-12 year-old children with autism were assigned to either a sensorimotor enrichment group, which received daily olfactory/tactile stimulation along with exercises that stimulated other paired sensory modalities, or to a control group. We administered tests of cognitive performance and autism severity to both groups at the initiation of the study and after 6 months. Severity of autism, as assessed with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, improved significantly in the enriched group compared to controls. Indeed, 42% of the enriched group and only 7% of the control group had what we considered to be a clinically significant improvement of 5 points on that scale. Sensorimotor enrichment also produced a clear improvement in cognition, as determined by their Leiter-R Visualization and Reasoning scores. At 6 months, the change in average scores for the enriched group was 11.3 points higher than that for the control group. Finally, 69% of parents in the enriched group and 31% of parents in the control group reported improvement in their child over the 6-month study. Environmental enrichment therefore appears to be effective in ameliorating some of the symptoms of autism in children.

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Section: Sensorimotor Deprivation Increases Autism Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: A randomized controlled trial.

Woo¹,

Leon²

2013

Behavioral Neuroscience

138

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“…Several studies also report difficulties with attention (Audet & Le Mare, 2011;Hodges & Tizard, 1989;McLaughlin et al, 2013) and cognitive delay (van Ijzendoorn et al, 2008). Few studies other than our own reported quasi-autistic features as a sequelae of institutional deprivation (Hoksbergen et al, 2005) although stereotypic behaviors have been reported by some (Bos, Zeanah, Smyke, Fox, & Nelson, 2010;Fisher, Ames, Chisholm, & Savoie, 1997). This is likely due to other studies not employing a systematic approach to measuring psychopathology and our sample being quite unique in the severeity of deprivation experienced involving substantial lack of nutrition, physical and health care, and emotional, social and cognitive stimulation.…”

Section: Deprivation Specific Patternsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Psychological Consequences of Early Global Deprivation

Kumsta

Kreppner

Kennedy

et al. 2015

European Psychologist

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The English & Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study follows children who spent their first years of life in extremely depriving Romanian institutions before they were adopted by families in the UK. The ERA study constitutes a "natural experiment" that allows the examination of the effects of radical environmental change from a profoundly depriving institution environment to an adoptive family home. The cohort has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years, and has provided seminal insights into the effect of early global deprivation. The current paper focuses on the long-term psychological sequelae associated with deprivation experiences. These deprivation specific problems (DSP) constitute a striking pattern of behavioural impairments, in its core characterized by deficits in social cognition and behaviour, as well as quasiautistic features, often accompanied by cognitive impairment and symptoms of ADHD. Possible moderating influences, including variations in family environment, pre-adoption characteristics, and genetic variation, will be discussed to answer the question why some individuals have prospered while others have struggled. Apart from findings on the moderating effect of variation in genes associated with serotonergic and dopaminergic signalling involving specific phenotypes, heterogeneity in outcome is largely unexplained. The review will conclude with an outlook on currently ongoing and future research of the ERA study cohort, which involves the investigation of neurobiological and epigenetic mechanisms as possible mediators of the long-term effects of institutional deprivation.

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“…Institutionalized children may display some autism-like behavioral patterns [1,2] often described as "(post)institutional autism" [3]. What are the possible neurobiological in the brain, caused by separation from mother and by social deprivation, have been well described both in primates [4] and other mammals [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early communication development in socially deprived children — similar to autism?

Cepanec

Gmajnić

Ljubešić

2010

Translational Neuroscience

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Early communication dEvElopmEnt in socially dEprivEd childrEn -similar to autism? abstract Social deprivation leads to various neuroanatomical, neuropsychological and behavioral disturbances in humans as well as in experimental animals. Shared characteristics of socially deprived subjects and subjects with autism have been documented. The aim of this study was to analyze early development of communication in institutionalized (INST) children (12-24 months) in comparison with age-and sexmatched group of typically developing (TD) children and a group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Our findings show that both socially deprived (INST) children and ASD children display delayed pattern of development in social, speech and symbolic domains. However, although INST children display significant developmental delay and share some features with ASD children, they have a qualitatively different developmental pattern of social communication in comparison to children with ASD. The results of this study indicate that growing up in an institution and lack of social and environmental stimuli influences development of skills that are fundamental for early speech and language development. introductionResearch on the effects of early social deprivation and institutionalization may provide insight into the mechanisms by which the social environment affects the entire human development. It is important to examine how much the absence or a reduced quantity of social stimuli during the early period

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Post-Institutional Autistic Syndrome in Romanian Adoptees

Cited by 83 publications

References 21 publications

Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: A randomized controlled trial.

Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: A randomized controlled trial.

Psychological Consequences of Early Global Deprivation

Early communication development in socially deprived children — similar to autism?

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