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- Hofvander, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Psychiatric and psychosocial problems in adults with normal-intelligence autism spectrum disorders.
- 2009
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Ingår i: BMC Psychiatry. - 1471-244X. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often display symptoms from other diagnostic categories. Studies of clinical and psychosocial outcome in adult patients with ASDs without concomitant intellectual disability are few. The objective of this paper is to describe the clinical psychiatric presentation and important outcome measures of a large group of normal-intelligence adult patients with ASDs. METHODS: Autistic symptomatology according to the DSM-IV-criteria and the Gillberg & Gillberg research criteria, patterns of comorbid psychopathology and psychosocial outcome were assessed in 122 consecutively referred adults with normal intelligence ASDs. The subjects consisted of 5 patients with autistic disorder (AD), 67 with Asperger's disorder (AS) and 50 with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD NOS). This study group consists of subjects pooled from two studies with highly similar protocols, all seen on an outpatient basis by one of three clinicians. RESULTS: Core autistic symptoms were highly prevalent in all ASD subgroups. Though AD subjects had the most pervasive problems, restrictions in non-verbal communication were common across all three subgroups and, contrary to current DSM criteria, so were verbal communication deficits. Lifetime psychiatric axis I comorbidity was very common, most notably mood and anxiety disorders, but also ADHD and psychotic disorders. The frequency of these diagnoses did not differ between the ASD subgroups or between males and females. Antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse were more common in the PDD NOS group. Of all subjects, few led an independent life and very few had ever had a long-term relationship. Female subjects more often reported having been bullied at school than male subjects. CONCLUSION: ASDs are clinical syndromes characterized by impaired social interaction and non-verbal communication in adulthood as well as in childhood. They also carry a high risk for co-existing mental health problems from a broad spectrum of disorders and for unfavourable psychosocial life circumstances. For the next revision of DSM, our findings especially stress the importance of careful examination of the exclusion criterion for adult patients with ASDs.
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| 2. |
- Larson, Tomas, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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The autism--tics, AD/HD and other comorbidities inventory (A-TAC): further validation of a telephone interview for epidemiological research.
- 2010
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Ingår i: BMC Psychiatry. - 1471-244X. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Reliable, valid, and easy-to-administer instruments to identify possible caseness and to provide proxies for clinical diagnoses are needed in epidemiological research on child and adolescent mental health.The aim of this study is to provide further validity data for a parent telephone interview focused on Autism - Tics, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), and other Comorbidities (A-TAC), for which reliability and preliminary validation data have been previously reported. METHODS: Parents of 91 children clinically diagnosed at a specialized Child Neuropsychiatric Clinic, 366 control children and 319 children for whom clinical diagnoses had been previously assigned were interviewed by the A-TAC over the phone. Interviewers were blind to clinical information. Different scores from the A-TAC were compared to the diagnostic outcome. RESULTS: Areas under ROC curves for interview scores as predictors of clinical diagnoses were around 0.95 for most disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), tic disorders, developmental coordination disorders (DCD) and learning disorders, indicating excellent screening properties. Screening cut-off scores with sensitivities above 0.90 (0.95 for ASD and AD/HD) were established for most conditions, as well as cut-off scores to identify proxies to clinical diagnoses with specificities above 0.90 (0.95 for ASD and AD/HD). CONCLUSIONS: The previously reported validity of the A-TAC was supported by this larger replication study using broader scales from the A-TAC-items and a larger number of diagnostic categories. Short versions of algorithms worked as well as larger. Different cut-off levels for screening versus identifying proxies for clinical diagnoses are warranted. Data on the validity for mood problems and oppositional defiant/conduct problems are still lacking. Although the A-TAC is principally intended for epidemiological research and general investigations, the instrument may be useful as a tool to collect information in clinical practice as well.
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| 3. |
- Kerekes, Nóra, et al.
(författare)
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Conduct disorder and somatic health in children: a nationwide genetically sensitive study
- 2020
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Ingår i: BMC Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-244X. ; 20:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Conduct disorder (CD), a serious behavioral and emotional disorder in childhood and adolescence, characterized by disruptive behavior and breaking societal rules. Studies have explored the overlap of CD with neurodevelopmental problems (NDP). The somatic health of children with NDP has been investigated; however, the prevalence of these problems in children with CD has not been sufficiently studied. Holistic assessment of children with CD is required for establishing effective treatment strategies. Aims: (1) Define the prevalence of selected neurological problems (migraine and epilepsy) and gastrointestinal problems (celiac disease, lactose intolerance, diarrhea, and constipation) in a population of twins aged 9 or 12; (2) Compare the prevalence of somatic problems in three subpopulations: (a) children without CD or NDP, (b) children with CD, and (c) children with both CD and NDP; (3) Select twin pairs where at least one child screened positive for CD but not NDP (proband) and map both children’s neurological and gastrointestinal problems. Method: Telephone interviews with parents of 20,302 twins in a cross-sectional, nationwide, ongoing study. According to their scores on the Autism-Tics, AD/HD, and Comorbidities inventory, screen-positive children were selected and divided into two groups: (1) children with CD Only, (2) children with CD and at least one NDP. Results: Children with CD had an increased prevalence of each neurological and gastrointestinal problem (except celiac disease), and the prevalence of somatic problems was further increased among children with comorbid CD and NDP. The presence of CD (without NDP) increased the odds of constipation for girls and the odds of epilepsy for boys. Girls with CD generally had more coexisting gastrointestinal problems than boys with CD. Female co-twins of probands with CD were strongly affected by gastrointestinal problems. Concordance analyses suggested genetic background factors in neurological and gastrointestinal problems, but no common etiology with CD could be concluded. Conclusion: Co-occurring NDP could explain most of the increased prevalence of somatic problems in CD. Our results raise a new perspective on CD in children and adolescents; their CD seems to be linked to a number of other health problems, ranging from neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders to somatic complaints. © 2020, The Author(s).
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| 4. |
- Mårland, Caroline, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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The Autism-Tics, ADHD and other Comorbidities inventory (A-TAC): previous and predictive validity.
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMC psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-244X. ; 17:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reliable and easy to administer screening instruments focusing on neurodevelopmental disorders and associated conditions are scarce. The Autism-Tics, AD/HD and other Comorbidities inventory (A-TAC) has previously been validated and reporting good- excellent validity for several disorders. This article aims to expand these findings by including more conditions in a substantially larger sample augmented with the Swedish National Patient Register (NPR).Since 2004 parents of all 9-year-old Swedish twins have been invited to participate in a telephone interview in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden, CATSS. The CATSS is linked to the NPR which includes data from in- and outpatient care. Data on neurodevelopmental disorders (A-TAC) collected in CATSS were compared with diagnoses from the NPR. We investigated diagnoses that had been made both before (previous validity) and after (predictive validity) the interview.Sensitivity and specificity of A-TAC scores for predicting earlier or later clinical diagnoses were mostly good-excellent, with values of the area under the curve for a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of .98, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) .93, learning disorder (LD) .92, and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) .99, with small differences in terms of previous and predictive analyses. A-TAC provided little validity for eating disorders.The result support previous claims: A-TAC is a broad screening instrument with a particular strength in assessing ASD, ADHD, LD, and ODD at ages 9 and 12, and also provides phenotypic information about other child psychiatric disorders.
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| 5. |
- Mårland, Caroline, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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The development of a brief screener for autism using item response theory
- 2019
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Ingår i: BMC Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-244X. ; 19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2019 The Author(s). Background: Brief screening instruments focusing on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that can be administered in primary care are scarce; there is a need for shorter and more precise instruments. The Autism-Tics, AD/HD and other Comorbidities inventory (A-TAC) has previously been validated for ASD reporting excellent validity. This study aims to determine the psychometric properties of each item in the ASD domain (17 items) in the A-TAC using item response theory (IRT), and thereby construct and validate a short form that could be used as a screening instrument in the general population. Methods: Since 2004, parents of all 9-year-old Swedish twins have been invited to participate in a telephone interview in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS). The CATSS is linked to the National Patient Register (NPR), which includes data from in- and outpatient care. Data on ASD (A-TAC) collected in CATSS were compared with diagnoses from the NPR. Diagnoses that had been made both before (previous validity) and after (predictive validity) the interviews were included. The sample was divided into a developmental sample and a validation sample. An IRT model was fitted to the developmental sample and item parameters were used to select a subset of items for the short form. The performance of the proposed short form was examined in the validation sample by the use of receiver operation characteristic curves. Results: Four items which were able to discriminate among individuals with more autism traits were deemed sufficient for use in the short form. The values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for a clinical diagnosis of ASD was.95 (previous validity) and.72 (predictive validity). Conclusions: The proposed short form with 4 out of the original 17 items from A-TAC, showed excellent previous validity while the predictive validity was fair. The validity of the short form was in agreement with previous validations of the full ASD domain. The short form can be a valuable screening instrument in primary care settings in order to identify individuals in need for further assessment and for use in epidemiological studies.
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