Department of childhood psychiatry, with the group of studying childhood autism

Irina Alexandrovna Kozlova is the head of the Department of childhood psychiatry with a group studying childhood autism, doctor of medical sciences. She upheld her PhD (Candidate of Med. Sci.) thesis “Clinical specifics of childhood schizophrenia” in 1968, and doctoral thesis “Genetics of childhood schizophrenia” in 1987. Her scientific interests involve: problems of personality pathology and the structure of personality dysontogenesis; assessment of hereditary predisposition to factors in probands index-cases with preferentially childhood syndromes (pathological impulse control disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety and phobic disorders, Gille de la Tourette syndrome, eating disorders, dromomanic disorders), a determination of the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors into the variability of clinical signs and symptoms with a high degree of inherited factors; clinical and a biological background of a pathogenetic conception of endogenous mental disorders in childhood. She is an author of 70 scientific works, including one chapter in the American Textbook on Psychiatry (1975) and one chapter in the “Manual on psychiatry” (ed. A.S. Tiganov). Under her scientific supervision, 6 PhD (Candidate of Med. Sci.) thesis have been upheld. She is a Chairman of the Problem Commission “Main Mental Disorders of Children, Adolescents and Youth” of the Inter-Institutional Scientific Council on mental health problems of RAMS, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, an expert of the Section on psychiatry of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, member of the specialized Scientific Council in the State Research Centre of Social and Forensic Psychiatry named after V.P. Serbsky.

The Department was organized in 1998, based on the unit of mental disorders in childhood that was a part of the Centre since 1982. In its turn, this department represented a structural development of the department of childhood psychiatry, that had existed in the Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR from the very first days of its functioning. For many years, the team of this department had been working under the leadership of Prof. T.P. Simson, who was widely known for her works in the field of early childhood schizophrenia. Later on, this department was guided by Prof. G.K. Ushakov (1961-1965) and Prof. M.Sh. Vrono (1965-1989), who studied various forms of schizophrenia in children, manifestations of mental dysontogenesis caused by this disorder and began to work on the role of heredity in the various types of mental pathology in childhood.

Within this department there is a group studying childhood autism (head - doctor of medical sciences V.M. Bashina).

Vera Mikhailovna Bashina is a doctor of medical sciences, the Chief Research Fellow. In 1966 she upheld her PhD thesis “On special features in the clinical picture of remote phases of schizophrenia, based on follow-up evaluations of people falling ill in adolecsency”, in 1978 she defended her doctoral thesis “The clinical picture of early childhood schizophrenia (clinical and follow-up studies)”. Her scientific interests involve: crucial problems of children and adolescent psychiatry, in the aspect of the age-related psychopathology, the clinical picture, genesis and treatment of early childhood schizophrenia, affective disorders, childhood endogenous autism and atypical autism. For the first time in the field of childhood psychiatry in the Russian Federation, she developed new approaches to the clinical rehabilitation of childhood atypical autism and the Rett syndrome. She created new organizational approaches such as semi-in-patient care for the rehabilitation of autistic children. She has 170 scientific publications, 3 monographs. Under the supervision of V. Bashina, 3 PhD's theses and 1 doctoral thesis were upheld. V.M. Bashina is a member of the WHO expert group on autism, and of the Council on coordination and methodological assistance of the organization of corrective and pedagogical care for children with early childhood autism in Moscow. She is an Honorary Chairman of the Association of doctors and parents of children with the Rett syndrome. V.M. Bashina is a member of the editorial board of the International abstract journal on autism (USA), and a coordinator of the international program on the study of the clinical picture and rehabilitation of childhood endogenous psychoses and autism of a various origin (together with Serbia and Belgium).

The department is staffed by 14 research fellows.

Scope of research activities of the Department:

1. Evaluation of the special features of endogenous psychoses in childhood and in age-related aspects, aimed at the identification of early diagnostic criteria, determination of the prognosis and improvement of treatment and preventive measures.

2. A comparative nosological evaluation of patterns and conditions of development of childhood autism and other forms of psychic dysontogenesis in childhood. Evaluation of specific features of autism in childhood in various forms of mental retardation, based on clinical, genetic and cytogenetic verification of the syndrome, as well as on the data of neurophysiological examination (in collaboration with the laboratories of cytogenetics and neurophysiology).

3. Elaboration of methods of treatment of mental disorders in children as in- and out-patients, including rehabilitation measures and family therapy.