Self-injurious behaviors (SIB) are common in autistic people. SIB is mainly studied as a broad category, rather than by specific SIB types. We aimed to determine associations of distinct SIB types with common psychiatric, emotional, medical, and socio-demographic factors.

Participants included 323 autistic youth (~50% non−/minimally-speaking) with high-confidence autism diagnoses ages 4–21 years. Data were collected by the Autism Inpatient Collection during admission to a specialized psychiatric inpatient unit (www.sfari.org/resource/autism-inpatient-collection/). Caregivers completed questionnaires about their child, including SIB type and severity. The youth completed assessments with clinicians. Elastic net regressions identified associations between SIB types and factors.

No single factor relates to all SIB types. SIB types have unique sets of associations. Consistent with previous work, more repetitive motor movements and lower adaptive skills are associated with most types of SIB; female sex is associated with hair/skin pulling and self-rubbing/scratching. More attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms are associated with self-rubbing/scratching, skin picking, hair/skin pulling, and inserts finger/object. Inserts finger/object has the most medical condition associations. Self-hitting against surface/object has the most emotion dysregulation associations.

Specific SIB types have unique sets of associations. Future work can develop clinical likelihood scores for specific SIB types in inpatient settings, which can be tested with large community samples. Current approaches for SIB focus on the behavior functions, but there is an opportunity to further develop interventions by considering the specific SIB type in assessment and treatment. Identifying factors associated with specific SIB types may aid with screening, prevention, and treatment of these often-impairing behaviors.

Binge eating disorder (BED) is a pernicious psychiatric disorder which is linked with broad medical and psychiatric morbidity, and obesity. While BED may be characterized by altered cortical morphometry, no evidence to date examined possible sex-differences in regional gray matter characteristics among those with BED. This is especially important to consider in children, where BED symptoms often emerge coincident with rapid gray matter maturation.

Pre-adolescent, 9–10-year old boys (N = 38) and girls (N = 33) with BED were extracted from the 3.0 baseline (Year 0) release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. We investigated sex differences in gray matter density (GMD) via voxel-based morphometry. Control sex differences were also assessed in age and body mass index and developmentally matched control children (boys N = 36; girls N = 38). Among children with BED, we additionally assessed the association between dorsolateral prefrontal (dlPFC) GMD and parent-reported behavioral approach and inhibition tendencies.

Girls with BED uniquely demonstrate diffuse clusters of greater GMD (p < 0.05, Threshold Free Cluster Enhancement corrected) in the (i) left dlPFC (p = 0.003), (ii) bilateral dmPFC (p = 0.004), (iii) bilateral primary motor and somatosensory cortex (p = 0.0003) and (iv) bilateral precuneus (p = 0.007). Brain-behavioral associations suggest a unique negative correlation between GMD in the left dlPFC and behavioral approach tendencies among girls with BED.

Early-onset BED may be characterized by regional sex differences in terms of its underlying gray matter morphometry.

Behavioral features of binge eating disorder (BED) suggest abnormalities in reward and inhibitory control. Studies of adult populations suggest functional abnormalities in reward and inhibitory control networks. Despite behavioral markers often developing in children, the neurobiology of pediatric BED remains unstudied.

58 pre-adolescent children (aged 9–10-years) with BED (mBMI = 25.05; s.d. = 5.40) and 66 age, BMI and developmentally matched control children (mBMI = 25.78; s.d. = 0.33) were extracted from the 3.0 baseline (Year 0) release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. We investigated group differences in resting-state functional MRI functional connectivity (FC) within and between reward and inhibitory control networks. A seed-based approach was employed to assess nodes in the reward [orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), nucleus accumbens, amygdala] and inhibitory control [dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)] networks via hypothesis-driven seed-to-seed analyses, and secondary seed-to-voxel analyses.

Findings revealed reduced FC between the dlPFC and amygdala, and between the ACC and OFC in pre-adolescent children with BED, relative to controls. These findings indicating aberrant connectivity between nodes of inhibitory control and reward networks were corroborated by the whole-brain FC analyses.

Early-onset BED may be characterized by diffuse abnormalities in the functional synergy between reward and cognitive control networks, without perturbations within reward and inhibitory control networks, respectively. The decreased capacity to regulate a reward-driven pursuit of hedonic foods, which is characteristic of BED, may in part, rest on this dysconnectivity between reward and inhibitory control networks.

Benzodiazepine (BZD) prescription rates have increased over the past decade in the United States. Available literature indicates that sociodemographic factors may influence diagnostic patterns and/or prescription behaviour. Herein, the aim of this study is to determine whether the gender of the prescriber and/or patient influences BZD prescription.

Cross-sectional study using data from the Florida Medicaid Managed Medical Assistance Program from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. Eligible recipients ages 18 to 64, inclusive, enrolled in the Florida Medicaid plan for at least 1 day, and were dually eligible. Recipients either had a serious mental illness (SMI), or non-SMI and anxiety.

Total 125 463 cases were identified (i.e., received BZD or non-BZD prescription). Main effect of patient and prescriber gender was significant F(1, 125 459) = 0.105, P = 0 .745, partial η2 < 0.001. Relative risk (RR) of male prescribers prescribing a BZD compared to female prescribers was 1.540, 95% confidence intervals (CI) [1.513, 1.567], whereas the RR of male patients being prescribed a BZD compared to female patients was 1.16, 95% CI [1.14, 1.18]. Main effects of patient and prescriber gender were statistically significant F(1, 125 459) = 188.232, P < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.001 and F(1, 125 459) = 349.704, P < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.013, respectively.

Male prescribers are more likely to prescribe BZDs, and male patients are more likely to receive BZDs. Further studies are required to characterize factors that influence this gender-by-gender interaction.

Cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) is a form of intracranial vascular disease that may arise sporadically or be dominantly inherited. Linkage studies have revealed genetic heterogeneity among the dominantly inherited forms suggesting the existence of at least three loci called CCM1, CCM2 and CCM3.

In the present study, we screened five families with dominantly inherited CCM for CCM1 gene mutations with denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). Then, we performed linkage analysis and haplotyping on these five families using highly polymorphic markers at the candidate CCM loci.

None of the five families tested with DHPLC were found to have mutations in the CCM1 gene. Based on haplotyping, we identified three families segregating alleles for CCM2, while two families segregated alleles for CCM3. Using linkage analysis, we could confirm that one family (IFCAS-1) had a positive Lod score of 2.03 (p<0.0001) at the CCM2 locus using marker D7S678.

The present study is the first one to replicate linkage at the CCM2 locus and provides a fifth family identified as such. It also supports the concept of genetic heterogeneity in CCM, identifying four other families that showed no mutations in the CCM1 gene.