A comparative study of Asperger syndrome with high-functioning atypical autism.
To test the validity of Asperger syndrome (AS) as defined in ICD-10, 26 patients (age range, 3.5 to 12 years) with AS and 16 patients (age range, 3 to 11.5 years) with high-functioning (IQ > 90) ICD-10 atypical autism (HAA) were compared on 64 clinical variables including obstetric risk factors, early developmental landmarks, IQ, autistic symptoms on the CARS-TV, epileptic EEG abnormalities and epilepsy. AS did not differ significantly from HAA on all but total and four item scores (i.e. imitation, visual responsiveness, auditory responsiveness and non-verbal communication) on the CARS-TV, in which AS scored significantly lower than HAA. A discriminant function based on imitation and auditory responsiveness predicted 76.2% of the 42 cases. The small difference from HAA indicates that AS is better to be regarded as the highest-functioning end of the PDD spectrum, rather than a valid subtype of PDD. However, the autistic symptom profile less distorted in AS than HAA may warrant a further study on its validity.
Kurita
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Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013577:Syndrome