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Effects Of Sertraline Treatment For Young Children With Fxs, Andrew Ligsay, Laura Greiss Hess, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Kerrie Lemons Chitwood, Jonathan Polussa, Salpi Siyahian, Randi Hagerman

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) help treat many of the phenotypic manifestations of fragile X syndrome (FXS) including anxiety, sensory processing challenges, and communication and intellectual deficits. However, the efficacy of SSRIs has not been previously studied in children with FXS under five-years-old. The purpose of this study was to elucidate group differences in behavior and developmental outcome measures for young children with FXS when treated with sertraline compared to placebo.

Effects Of Sertraline Treatment For Young Children With Fxs, Laura Greiss Hess, Peter Mundy, Randi Hagerman

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Phenotypic manifestations for young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) include: anxiety, sensory processing challenges, global language and communication deficits and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Many of these symptoms can be treated with medications, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However to date a clinical trial has not been conducted for children under five years old.

This study investigated the following question: Are there group differences on developmental outcome measures for those children treated with sertraline compared to placebo?

Family Meanings, Contexts And Hopes Within A Clinical Trial, Laura Greis Hess, Cynthia Carter Ching, Randi Hagerman

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

These qualitative analyses are a component of the clinical trial: “Effects of Sertraline Treatment for Young Children with FXS: Examination of Developmental Outcomes and Family Contexts.”

We argue that inclusion of a sociocultural perspective within the context of a clinical trial affords consideration of:

• A dynamic view of development – simultaneous consideration of biological and sociocultural factors (Vygotsky, 1978).
• Application of a bioecological framework and consideration of ever changing nested settings and contexts over time (Bronfenbrenner, 2005)

Imitation In Fragile X Syndrome: Implications For Autism, Marta Macedoni-Luksic, Laura Greiss Hess, Sally J. Rogers, David Gosar, Kerrie Lemons-Chitwood, Randi Hagerman

Occupational Therapy | Faculty Scholarship

To address the specific impairment of imitation in autism, the imitation abilities of 22 children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with and without autism were compared. Based on previous research, we predicted that children with FXS and autism would have significantly more difficulty with non-meaningful imitation tasks. After controlling for full-scale IQ and age, the groups did not differ in their overall imitation accuracy scores, but analysis of error patterns revealed that children with FXS and autism made more groping errors and additional movements than the comparison group. These error patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that an action production …