Validity of childhood disintegrative psychosis. General findings of a long-term follow-up study.
BACKGROUND
Empirical evidence for the validity of the diagnostic label disintegrative psychosis is sparse. The issue of whether it is a separate form of infantile autism is unresolved.


METHODS
To investigate the validity of disintegrative psychosis as defined in ICD-9, the natural history of 13 cases were compared with 39 matched cases of infantile autism on various outcome variables. Average follow-up time was 22 (11-33) years.


RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of number of admissions to non-psychiatric departments, occurrence of comorbid epilepsy, social style, and score on the Global Assessment of Functioning scale. In most other areas assessed there was a tendency, although statistically insignificant, towards a better outcome in the infantile autism comparison group.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings provide some support for maintaining a diagnostic category of disintegrative psychosis as distinct from infantile autism.
Mouridsen
S E
SE
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Rich
B
B
Isager
T
T
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010415:Pensions; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011627:Puberty; D012111:Residence Characteristics