Neuropsychiatry in the context of "Autism"

Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology focus on how injuries or illnesses of the brain affect cognitive and behavioral functions.

It is both an experimental and clinical field of patient-focused psychology. Thus aiming to understand how behavior and cognition are influenced by brain function. It is also concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects of neurological disorders. Whereas classical neurology focuses on the pathology of the nervous system and classical psychology is largely divorced from it, neuropsychology seeks to discover how the brain correlates with the mind through the study of neurological patients. It thus shares concepts and concerns with neuropsychiatry and with behavioral neurology in general. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied in efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells (or groups of cells) in higher primates (including some studies of human patients).

Behavioral neurology is a subspecialty of neurology that studies the impact of neurological damage and disease upon behavior, memory, and cognition, and the treatment thereof. Two fields associated with behavioral neurology are neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology. In the United States, 'Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry' has been recognized as a single subspecialty by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS) since 2004.

Syndromes and diseases commonly studied by behavioral neurology include:

Hyperkinetic disorder was a neuropsychiatric condition that was thought to emerge in early childhood. Its features included an enduring pattern of severe, developmentally-inappropriate symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity across different settings (e.g., home and school) that significantly impair academic, social, and work performance. It was classified in the World Health Organization's ICD-10 and was roughly similar to the "combined presentation" of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5. However, in the ICD-11 the entry for hyperkinetic disorder no longer exists and is replaced by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Korsakoff syndrome (KS) is a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by amnesia, deficits in explicit memory, and confabulation. This neurological disorder is caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B₁) in the brain, and it is typically associated with and exacerbated by the prolonged, excessive ingestion of alcohol. Korsakoff syndrome is often accompanied by Wernicke encephalopathy; this combination is called Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome.

Korsakoff syndrome is named after Sergei Korsakoff, the Russian neuropsychiatrist who described it during the late 19th century.

Catatonia is a neuropsychiatric syndrome most commonly seen in people with underlying mood disorders, such as major depressive disorder, or psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. People with catatonia exhibit abnormal movement and behaviors that vary from person to person and may fluctuate in intensity within a single episode.

People with catatonia appear withdrawn, meaning that they do not interact with the outside world and have difficulty processing information. They may be nearly motionless for days on end or perform repetitive purposeless movements. People may exhibit very different sets of behaviors and still be diagnosed with catatonia. Treatment with benzodiazepines or electroconvulsive therapy is most effective and leads to remission of symptoms in most cases.