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none 28 no BACKGROUND: The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. METHOD: A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. RESULTS: We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (⩾14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI

Some studies show that the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder could be considered reliable and stable in children aged 18 to 24 months. Nevertheless, the diagnostic stability of early ASD diagnosis has not yet been fully demonstrated. This observational study examines the one-year diagnostic stability of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in a clinical sample of 147 children diagnosed between 18 and 48 months of age. The ADOS-2 scores were used in order to stratify children in three levels of symptom severity: Autism (AD; comparison score 5–7), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; comparison score 3–4), and Sub-Threshold Symptoms; (STS; comparison score 1–2). Results: Overall, the largest part of children and toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder between 18 and 48 months continued to show autistic symptoms at one-year follow-up evaluation. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of children with higher ADOS severity scores exhibited a reduction of symptom severity and, therefore, moved towards a milder severity class one year later. Conversely, the number of subjects of the STS group meaningfully increased. Therefore, at one-year follow-up a statistically significant (χ2(2) = 181.46, p < 0.0001) percentage of subjects (25.2% of the total) who had received a categorical diagnosis of Autistic Disorder or Autism Spectrum Disorder in baseline no longer met the criteria for a categorical diagnosis. Furthermore, children who no longer met the criteria for autism spectrum disorder continue to show delays in one or more neurodevelopmental areas, possibly related to the emergence of other neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders. Overall, the comprehensive results of the study account for a high sensibility but a moderate stability of ASD early diagnosis.

Background. Catatonia is increasingly recognized as a comorbid psychiatric condition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the overlap of behavioral characteristics between these disorders raises many diagnostic challenges. Moreover, recognizing symptoms in ASD patients with medium-low functioning might be difficult. Literature on this argument is poor, especially for children. Case presentation. We report the case of an ASD patient with low cognitive functioning, who presented a complex symptomatology, characterized by progressive regression with loss of autonomy and involuntary movements that assume “dystonic” features. Organic pathology was excluded, and catatonia, with peculiar dystonic characteristics, was diagnosed. An intervention based on elimination of stressful factors, resumption of routines, and support for parents led to the resolution of catatonic symptoms. Conclusions. The case describes the presence among the catatonic symptoms in ASD of involuntary “dystonic” movements; so far, little reported in literature; it highlights that the catatonia may present with a broad spectrum of motor abnormalities. There is still little evidence for treatment of catatonia and ASD. Our case highlights how it is equally important to take into account triggering factors when implementing a nonpharmacological treatment. So, it represents an example of diagnostic and therapeutic challenges of catatonia in ASD, especially in low functioning forms.