Saliva oxytocin, cortisol, and testosterone levels in adolescent boys with autism spectrum disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder and typically developing individuals.

The aim of the current study was to compare levels of oxytocin, cortisol, and testosterone in adolescents with either autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)/conduct disorder (CD), and in typically developing individuals (TDI), and relate hormone levels to severity and subtype of aggression and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Saliva concentrations of oxytocin, cortisol, and testosterone were assessed in 114 male participants (N = 49 ASD, N = 37 ODD/CD, N = 28 TDI,) aged 12-19 years (M = 15.4 years, SD = 1.9). The ASD and the ODD/CD groups had significantly lower levels of oxytocin than the TDI group, and the ODD/CD group had significantly higher levels of testosterone than the ASD group. There were no group effects on cortisol levels. Group differences remained for oxytocin after correcting for the influence of CU traits, but were not significant after controlling for aggression. Results for testosterone became non-significant after correction for either CU traits or aggression. Across groups, higher levels of CU traits were related to higher levels of cortisol and testosterone, however, proactive and reactive aggression were unrelated to all three hormonal levels. The current findings show that, regardless of cognitive ability or comorbid disorders, the diagnostic groups (ASD, ODD/CD) differ from each other by their hormonal levels, with the ASD group characterized by relative low level of oxytocin, and the ODD/CD group by a relative low level of oxytocin and high level of testosterone. These group effects were partly driven by differences in CU traits between the groups.

Emotional face recognition in male adolescents with autism spectrum disorder or disruptive behavior disorder: an eye-tracking study.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder (CD) are often associated with emotion recognition difficulties. This is the first eye-tracking study to examine emotional face recognition (i.e., gazing behavior) in a direct comparison of male adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder, and typically developing (TD) individuals. We also investigate the role of psychopathic traits, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and subtypes of aggressive behavior in emotional face recognition. A total of 122 male adolescents (N = 50 ASD, N = 44 ODD/CD, and N = 28 TD) aged 12-19 years (M = 15.4 years, SD= 1.9) were included in the current study for the eye-tracking experiment. Participants were presented with neutral and emotional faces using a Tobii 1750 eye-tracking monitor to record gaze behavior. Our main dependent eye-tracking variables were: (1) fixation duration to the eyes of a face and (2) time to the first fixation to the eyes. Since distributions of eye-tracking variables were not completely Gaussian, non-parametric tests were chosen to investigate gaze behavior across the diagnostic groups with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder, and Typically Developing individuals. Furthermore, we used Spearman correlations to investigate the links with psychopathy, callous, and unemotional traits and subtypes of aggression as assessed by questionnaires. The relative total fixation duration to the eyes was decreased in both the Autism Spectrum Disorder group and the Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder group for several emotional expressions. In both the Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder group, increased time to first fixation on the eyes of fearful faces only was nominally significant. The time to first fixation on the eyes was nominally correlated with psychopathic traits and proactive aggression. The current findings do not support strong claims for differential cross-disorder eye-gazing deficits and for a role of shared underlying psychopathic traits, callous-unemotional traits, and aggression subtypes. Our data provide valuable and novel insights into gaze timing distributions when looking at the eyes of a fearful face.

Work adjustments among the chronically ill.

Work(place) adjustments can help restore the work capacity of persons with a chronic disease. This study aims to quantify the presence of work adjustments among chronically ill workers in the Netherlands, and to investigate the extent to which the presence of work adjustments are related to the experience of work-interfering problems, disease characteristics or work characteristics. Data for this study are derived from the Dutch Panel of Patients with Chronic Diseases. The results discussed here relate to data collected in 1999 from a representative sample of 556 working people with various chronic somatic diseases. Of the work-interfering problems, the ones related to physical disabilities, concentration or memory deficits and transportation emerged as the most important factors related to the presence of either immaterial (i.e. not material) or material work adjustments. In addition, higher age and lower educational level were associated with a higher probability of immaterial adjustments; pain, attack frequency and physical demands of the job were important predictors of material work adjustments.

Breast cancer in Europe: the importance of factors operating at an early age.

Breast cancer incidence varies considerably among European countries, with highest rates found in western and northern and lowest rates in eastern and southern European countries. The objective of this ecological correlation study was to investigate to what extent variation in breast cancer incidence within Europe can be attributed to differences in the prevalence of the following risk factors: age at menarche, age at first birth, parity, body height and body weight. The results of the study showed that particularly age at first birth and body height correlated positively and significantly with breast cancer incidence. If in eastern and southern European countries changes take place with respect to reproductive behaviour and nutritional status in the same way as has happened in western and northern European countries, breast cancer incidence in the countries included in this study may increase by 11%. This means that, by the time the 0- to 10-year-old female population in the European countries being studied reaches the age of 64, the number of women with breast cancer may be 1,198,369, which is almost 135,000 higher than would be the case if breast cancer risk remained stable.