Autism is an extensively studied disorder in which the gender disparity in prevalence has received much attention. In contrast, only a few studies examine gender differences in symptomatology. This systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 peer reviewed original publications examines gender differences in the core triad of impairments in autism. Gender differences were transformed and concatenated using standardized mean differences, and analyses were stratified in five age categories (toddlerhood, preschool children, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood). Boys showed more repetitive and stereotyped behavior as from the age of six, but not below the age of six. Males and females did not differ in the domain of social behavior and communication. There is an underrepresentation of females with ASD an average to high intelligence. Females could present another autistic phenotype than males. As ASD is now defined according to the male phenotype this could imply that there is an ascertainment bias. More research is needed into the female phenotype of ASD with development of appropriate instruments to detect and ascertain them.

The hypothesis was tested that weak theory of mind (ToM) and/or emotion recognition (ER) abilities are specific to subjects with autism. Differences in ToM and ER performance were examined between autistic (n = 20), pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (n = 20), psychiatric control (n = 20), and normal children (n = 20). The clinical groups were matched person-to-person on age and verbal IQ. We used tasks for the matching and the context recognition of emotional expressions, and a set of first- and second-order ToM tasks. Autistic and PDD-NOS children could not be significantly differentiated from each other, nor could they be differentiated from the psychiatric controls with a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 9). The psychiatric controls with conduct disorder or dysthymia performed about as well as normal children. The variance in second-order ToM performance contributed most to differences between diagnostic groups.

Comparison with data from community and juvenile justice studies shows an ascending trend of comorbidity rates of externalizing disorders from community to clinical and finally to juvenile justice samples. It seems that young addicts with comorbid disorders are at high risk of ending up in the juvenile justice system.

This randomized controlled trial compared results obtained after 12 months of nonintensive parent training plus care-as-usual and care-as-usual alone. The training focused on stimulating joint attention and language skills and was based on the intervention described by Drew et al. (Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatr 11:266–272, 2002). Seventy-five toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (65 autism, 10 PDD-NOS, mean age = 34.4 months, SD = 6.2) were enrolled. Analyses were conducted on a final sample of 67 children (lost to follow-up = 8). No significant intervention effects were found for any of the primary (language), secondary (global clinical improvement), or mediating (child engagement, early precursors of social communication, or parental skills) outcome variables, suggesting that the ‘Focus parent training’ was not of additional value to the more general care-as-usual.

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Patients with chronic forms of depression should be offered tailored psychotherapeutic treatments that address their specific needs and deficits. Combination treatment with psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is the first-line treatment recommended for CD. More research is needed to develop more effective treatments for CD, especially in the longer term, and to identify which patients benefit from which treatment algorithm.

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Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder (MCDD) represents a distinct group within the autistic spectrum based on symptomatology. Unlike autistic children, part of MCDD children develop schizophrenia in adult life. Despite the differences, patients of both disorders are mainly characterized by abnormal reactions to their social environment. At the biological level, we showed in a previous study that MCDD children have a reduced cortisol response to psychosocial stress. Given the fact that autistic children clinically show more social impairments, it was hypothesized that they may have even further decreased cortisol responses to psychosocial stress than MCDD patients. Therefore, 10 autistic children were compared to 10 MCDD children and 12 healthy control children in their response to a psychosocial stressor, consisting of a public speaking task. In order to test whether any impairments in the biological stress response are specific for psychosocial stress, the autistic children were compared with 11 MCDD children and 15 control children in their response to a physical stressor, consisting of 10 min of bicycle exercise. Heart rate and salivary cortisol levels were used as indicators of response to the stress tests. Autistic children showed a relatively elevated cortisol response to psychosocial stress, in contrast to MCDD children who showed a reduced cortisol response. No differences in heart rate or cortisol responses to the physical stress test were found. The specific difference between autistic and MCDD children in their cortisol response to psychosocial stress indicates that the disturbed reactions to the social environment observed in these disorders may have different biological backgrounds.