Natalia V. Simashkova

Russian Academy of Medical Sciences | RAMS · Mental Health Research Centre

Objective: To study the intellectual activity of children and adolescents with progressive forms of schizophrenia using quantitative and qualitative diagnostic methods. Material and methods: An experimental group consisted of 67 children and adolescents (mean age 11.1±2.8 years) with mental pathology of schizophrenia spectrum with varying severi...

Introduction The family of a child with a mental illness is a significant source for his support in harmonizing his development and achieving successful socialization. Objectives The objective of the survey is to develop a psychoeducational program for parents. Methods Questionnaire “Parental attitude to children’s illnesses” (V.E. Kagan, I.P. Zh...

Introduction Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is one of the most urgent problems of psychiatry because of their high prevalence, diagnostic difficulties as well as insufficient knowledge of the pathogenetic mechanisms. Objectives To determine the number of inflammation markers in patients with various forms of ASD in links with features of a clinic...

The results of previous studies suggest pathogenetic role of immune system in the development of schizophrenia. Examination of adolescent and young adult schizophrenic patients showed that the activity/ level of distinct parameters of innate and acquired immunity correlates with acuity and severity of pathological process in the brain. Presumably,...

We aimed to screen children aged 18-48 months in the general population of nine Russian regions for risk of mental, behavioral and developmental disorders (MBDDs) including autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using an original screening tool. The prevalence of the risk for MBDDs is 1307:10,000 (13.07%), the prevalence of clinically verified cases of MB...

Objective: To reveal paired and partial correlations of values of neuro-immuno-test and thrombodynamics test in children with childhood autism and schizophrenia in childhood in a state of exacerbation. Material and methods: The study used a database of children with childhood autism, obtained by us in 2028-2019. The study included 46 patients wi...

The article deals with the peculiarities of the cerebral organization of subcortical structures in children with autism spectrum disorders. The study involved 48 children aged from 3 to 8 years (M=5.75; SD=2.61) having ICD-10 diagnoses F84.0, F84.1, F84.5. All children underwent registration of acoustic evoked brainstem potentials and neuropsycholo...

Background: pathogen heterogeneity and complexity are the main obstacles for schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) differential diagnosis in children. The role of oxidative stress in the molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and autism pathogenesis is beyond doubt. Free radicals that accumulate during stress can cause oxidative modifica...

Introduction Autism spectrum disorders encompass a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders. Autism may be accompanied by other mental and neurological disorders. Comorbidity in autism is the rule rather than the exception (as reflected in DSM-5). Objectives To study comorbidity in patients with childhood autism and hyperkinetic disorde...

Introduction The importance of clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in childhood is due to the timely detection of ASD and the appropriate early start of patient care, depending on the form of ASD. The experience of multidisciplinary collaboration between medical psychologists and clinicians in child psychiatric practice allows us...

Objective: recently, much attention has been paid to the problem of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in childhood. Despite the abundance of psychometric approaches to the diagnosis of autism in childhood, questions remain about the validity of their use in everyday practice. In recent years, works began to appear in the United States calling into qu...

Objective: To develop clinical and social models and management routes for patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Material and methods: A clinical follow-up study was performed for 254 patients, aged 4-17 years (average age 7.3 years), who represented the main forms of ASD. Psychopathological, clinical-follow-up, psychological and statis...

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are known to be associated with an inflammatory process related to immune system dysfunction. This study's aim was to investigate the role of cell-free DNA in chronic inflammatory process in ASD patients. Methods: The study included 133 ASD patients and 27 healthy controls. Sixty-two ASD patients were...

Novel Russian recommendations and special methods of clinical diagnosis, support, and social adaptation for children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are described. The data of epidemiological studies on the ASD prevalence in the Russian Federation and in the world are presented. Necessity of translating the achievements of basic sci...

Objective: To verify a working hypothesis that thrombodynamic parameters of hypercoagulation and neuro-immune test correlate with the severity of catatonia in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the combination of these indicators can predict the severity of catatonia with high accuracy and precision. Material and methods: Twenty-f...

Objective: Screening of children 18-48 months of age at risk of mental and developmental disorders in the general population. Material and methods: The survey was conducted by a continuous epidemiological method in primary health care institutions in the nine largest regions of Russia. For the period 2017-2019, 595 691 parents of children, aged...

It is known that functional activity of complement system depends not only on balance and concentration of components participating in formation of the system end products, but also on levels of inhibitory activities. Numerous relations with hemostasis also substantially contribute to general level of complement system activity. Changes in compleme...

The study describes the latest recommended and adopted clinical and management practice for children and adults with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in Russia and discusses the most recent research work by Russian clinicians and neuroscientists in the field. The study also presents data from the first epidemiological studies on ASD prevalence and...

Current studies on the development autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at different ages are reviewed. The review highlights the increasing interest to this problem and converging positions of researchers from different countries, encouraged by the development of international and other classifications of mental diseases, on the terminology, classifica...

Chronis rhinosinusitis is considered as a widespread public health issue with a prevalence of 10%. The disease significantly reduces quality of life and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases as well as certain forms of cancer. Alteration of mucociliary clearance frequently observed in the patients and plays a significant role in disease pat...

The objective of the study was to investigate the association between catatonia in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the levels of hair and serum trace elements and minerals in children with ASD. The levels of hair and serum trace elements and minerals of boys suffering from ASD with (n = 30) and without (n = 30) catatonia, as well as 30 age- and...

Aim: To detect blood plasma coagulability in children with mental diseases using a thrombodynamics test. Material and methods: The study included two groups of children. Group 1 included 11 patients with infantile psychosis in autism (F84.02) (4 girls and 7 boys). Group 2 included 8 patients with childhood schizophrenia (F20.8xx3) (4 girls and 1...

This article is concerned with the issue of parental awareness of the illness of children with autism spectrum disorders. Lack of awareness of treatment options and its limitations, rehabilitation issues can cause psychological problems in the child’s parents, such as anxiety and stress from the diagnosis. The aim of the pilot study is to determine...

Aim: To study a correlation between the values of thrombodynamics parameters of hypercoagulation measured by the thrombodynamics test and the severity of catatonia in children with infantile psychosis in childhood autism (F84.02). Material and methods: Twenty-four patients (22 boys and 2 girls) aged from 3 to 13 years, were studied. The severity...

In 2015-2016 the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation introduced the pilot epidemiological screening of the paediatric population at an early age. The screening was aimed at detecting autism spectrum disorders (ASD) risk group. During the 2015-2016, 74191 parents of children aged 16-24 months were questioned. This initiative is targete...

The objective of the present study was to estimate the association between brain inflammatory markers and serum trace element levels as assessed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry at NexION 300D. Leukocyte elastase (LE), α1-proteinase inhibitor (α1-PI) activity, anti-nerve growth factor-antibodies (anti-NGF-Ab), and anti-myelin basic p...

Aim: To screen infants of the general population for the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Material and methods: The survey was conducted by a total epidemiological method in primary health care facilities in the three largest regions in Russia (Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk regions). For the period 2015-2016, 74191 parents of child...

The authors present a review of literature on the involvement of perinatal and postnatal mercury exposure in the pathogenesis of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). A number of studies have shown a reliable association between perinatal and postnatal exposure to mercury and ASD development aa well as clinical and laboratory markers of the severity o...

Current studies on the development autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at different ages are reviewed. The review highlights the increasing interest to this problem and converging positions of researchers from different countries, encouraged by the development of international and other classifications of mental diseases, on the terminology, classifica...

The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the levels of essential trace elements in hair and serum in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and investigate the age and gender effects. Children with ASD were characterized by significantly higher levels of copper (Cu) (+8%), iron (Fe) (+5%), and selenium (Se) (+13%) levels...

The primary objective of the present study is analysis of hair trace elements content in children with communication disorder (CD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 99 children from control, CD, and ASD groups (n = 33) were examined. All children were additionally divided into two subgroups according to age. Hair levels of trace elemen...

Introduction Improving the mental health diagnosis in young children is the high-priority problem in reducing the rate of child disability due to mental illnesses. In 2015, the Ministry of Healthcare (Russia) introduced the pilot project – the total screening of the paediatric population at an early age, detecting autism spectrum disorders (ASD) ri...

Introduction Autism spectrum disorder and early onset schizophrenia have many similar symptoms, however, these are different disorders. It is important to identify the main similarities\differences in the structure of cognitive impairment to define further assistance these children correctly. We distinguished two options for cognitive defect (total...

The objective of the study was to investigate hair trace elements content in children suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 74 ASD children and 74 sex- and age-matched controls divided into two age groups (2-4 and 5-9 years) were investigated. Hair trace elements content was assessed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectro...

The article discusses the current state of the problem a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis of infantile autism and early-onset schizophrenia, differentiation of these diseases. The purpose of this study, which has been conducted at the Mental Health Research Center, is to determine the biological (immunological and physiological), pathops...

The existing data demonstrate a significant interrelation between ASD and essential and toxic trace elements status of the organism. However, data on trace element homeostasis in particular ASD forms are insufficient. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to assess the level of trace elements and electrolytes in serum of children with c...

Objective: To compare clinical and immunological parameters in children with schizophrenia and to analyze the possibility of using them in the assessment of the pathological process activity. Material and methods: We examined 62 patients, 39 boys and 23 girls, aged from 4 to 17 years, with childhood-onset schizophrenia. Mental state of the patie...

Aim: To evaluate the state of complement system (CS) activity in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with schizophrenia on the basis of development and implementation of a new method of CS determination. Material and methods: A study included 249 patients, aged from 3 to 14 years. The control group consisted of 279 age-m...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and safety of children tenoten in the treatment of children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. MATERIAL AND METHODS It was conducted a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the drug tenoten children at a dose of 1 tablet 3 times a day for 12 weeks. The study included 98 patients (boys and girl...

A review includes the following sections corresponded with methods of investigation and groups of patients: Wechsler test for atypical autism and schizophrenia; Psycho Educational Profile (PEP) in endogenous mental pathology, the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement in children schizophrenia, Edinburgh Picture Test in mental dysontogenesis. The...

The current problem of heterogeneity of psychotic types of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) is reviewed. The authors present results of a multidiscipline psychopathological, pathopsychological, neurophysiological and immunological examination of 87 patients, aged from 3 to 14 years, with psychotic types of ASD: childhood psychosis (CP) and atypica...

Serum samples were collected from children suffering from psychotic forms of autistic disorders – childhood autism (F84.02) and atypical childhood psychosis (F84.11) – and measures of innate and acquired immunity were assessed, i.e., leukocyte elastase activity, α1-proteinase inhibitor, C-reactive protein, and antibodies to nerve growth factor and...

The paper discusses the state of development of acquired hyperkinetic disorder in psychotic forms of autistic spectrum disorders. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood autism (childhood psychosis) has pathopsychological markers as cognitive disontogenesis with delays in fine motor activity and visual motor coordination, neuro...

Leukocyte elastase (LE) activity, functional activity of alpha1-proteinase inhibitor, C-reactive protein, autoantibodies to nerve growth factor and to basic myelin protein have been studied in the blood serum of children with psychotic forms of autistic disorders - children psychosis (F84.02) and atypical children psychosis (F84.11). The activation...

The aim of the study was to determine clinical borders of psychotic forms of atypical autism in children, its psychopathological and age-specific manifestations as well as nosological peculiarities and to specify its pathogenetic features. Eighty patients with childhood endogenous autism, Rett syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome have been s...

The aim of the study was to elucidate fundamentals for the phenomenon of universality of childhood autism by comparison of clinical and neurophysiological features of its severest forms--children endogenous autism (CEA) and Rett's syndrome (RS). Each group included 20 patients. Both groups were similar by age-at-disease-onset, clinical appearances...

Twenty children with endogenous autism of mild and moderate severity (30-44.5 scores according to the CARS), aged 3-8 years, were treated with choline alfoscerate (CA), 400 mg/day, during 8 weeks in the presence of maintenance therapy with neuroleptics (17 cases). Positive therapeutic effect was observed in 89% of the patients: significant improvem...

Nineteen children with childhood autism and 8 with Asperger's syndrome aged 2-8 year, were treated with cerebrolysin (CL) in inpatient clinic. All the patients received 10 microinjections (intramuscularly and perinervously) of 0.1 ml CL daily during 5 days. Clinical study was combined with device estimation of cognitive functions and communicative...

Nineteen children with childhood autism and 8 with Asperger's syndrome aged 2-8 year, were treated with cerebrolysin (CL) in inpatient clinic. All the patients received 10 microinjections (intramuscularly and perinervously) of 0,1 ml CL daily during 5 days. Clinical study was combined with device estimation of cognitive functions and communicative...

Rett syndrome is a severe, genetically determined disease of early childhood which produces a defined clinical phenotype in girls. The main clinical manifestations include lesions affecting speech functions, involving both expressive and receptive speech, as well as motor functions, producing apraxia of the arms and profound abnormalities of gait i...

Rett syndrome (RS) is a severe genetically conditioned disorder of an early childhood with an definite clinical phenotype in girls. Motor and speech disturbances are noted as the essential part of RS clinical picture. The variability of motor dysfunction and degree of speech deterioration were noted at different stages of the illness. The aim of th...

A clinical cohort was formed of 80 patients. The main criteria for including patients into the cohort were both the age of 12-17 years by the moment of the psychosis manifestation and a course of the disease in form of the attacks. On the basis of the study of psychopathological structure of the attacks from their onset to the remission and the fol...

Increased central-parietal EEG theta-2 activity (about 6.5 per sec) was found in children with cognitive disorders (in Rett's syndrome, fragile X-syndrome, infantile autism) and in elderly patients with Alzheimer-type dementia (with prevalence of neuropsychological "frontal" disorders) in the presence of suppressed alpha rhythm. This theta-activity...

Autoimmune reactions resulting in the production of autoantibodies to nerve tissue are relevant to many mental diseases, including schizophrenia [4, 10, 14]. However, there are currently no generally accepted concepts of the role of these autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of the corresponding diseases. We have previously demonstrated increases in...

The level of autoantibodies (AAB) to nerve growth factor (NGF) was examined in blood of mentally healthy children, children with early children schizophrenia as well as with Kanner's and Asperger's syndromes too. The elevated titer of AAB to NGF was determined in blood of children with acute, active state of disease; meanwhile the same titer wasn't...

Clinical, pathopsychological and neurophysiological studies have been carried out in 85 children with infantile autistic psychosis and in 38 girls with Rett's syndrome. New improved differential diagnostic criteria between these two forms of early childhood autism have been suggested. EEG spectral density values in alpha-1, alpha-2, beta and theta...

The results of rehabilitational and psychological correction of mentally ill children and adolescents in hospital, inpatient-outpatient and outpatient conditions and of the follow-up are presented. The problem of prevention and rehabilitation is reviewed in general. Some considerations on further perfection of the aid to mentally ill children are s...

36 children with Rett's syndrome were examined in respect to the illness stage and psychopathologic trends. It is supposed that relationship of EEG abnormalities to clinical stages reflects gradual involvement of different brain structures in the pathological process. Possibility of temporary interruptions in the disease progression is demonstrated...

Problems of rehabilitative correction of defect conditions associated with schizophrenia that had occurred in early childhood remain little studied. After the disease attacks the schizophrenic children usually develop severe defect conditions. With no rehabilitation provided to such children, the defect gravity increases due to super-addition of se...

The paper is concerned with a study into the characteristic features of language pathology in children with early infantile autism of the process genesis. 68 patients with early infantile autism were entered into the study. The language as the earliest function of the central nervous system may suffer first of all. Language disorders of varying pat...

Clinico-catamnestic approach was applied to study 40 children with early schizophrenia with astheno-adynamic, adynamic and affective-catatonic attacks. Catamnesis duration was 15 to 20 years. The authors describe the psychopathologic disorders and their repercussion around astheno-adynamic, adynamic, affective-catatonic attacks within four age peri...

The work deals with the catamnestic substantiation of the systematics of schizophrenia in children. A group of 328 patients was selected in 1982-1987 from a cohort of schizophrenic patients studied in 1962-1972 in which the onset of the disease fell on their first 5 years. The stability of the course patterns was evidenced in the early childhood sc...

The article is devoted to a clinical dynamic study of the formation of remissions, the specification of the structure of the defect, social prognosis and localization of asthenic disturbances in 33 adolescents with shift-like juvenile schizophrenia who suffered from catatono-oneiroid attacks. The duration of the follow-up was 4-8 years. The fate of...

Clinical follow-up covered 40 patients with paroxysmal progressive schizophrenia with a history of 52 affective, anxiety-affective and affective-hallucinatory attacks at the age of 0-10 years and of 70 hallucinatory-delusional attacks at the age of 11-17 years and older. Over one-third of the examined patients were under the authors' personal obser...

The formation of remissions of recurrent schizophrenia was studied over time in 32 adolescents (12-17 years of age). Over the period of follow-up (4-8 years) the author analyzed 23 affective-oneiric and 50 affective-delirious attacks of schizophrenia and traced the history of patients at the age of 18-23 years. Following attacks of recurrent schizo...

Forty-five patients aged 12 to 17 years suffering from acute pubertal schizophrenia characterized by polymorphic paroxysms were studied. This group was heterogeneous and included recurrent schizophrenia with affective-oneiroid and affective-delusional disturbances in paroxysms and paroxysmal progressive schizophrenia with catatono-oneiroid and para...