title: [The Marburg Rating Scale for Asperger's Syndrome (MBAS)--a screening instrument for high-functioning autistic disorders].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Asperger's Syndrome is a disorder of uncertain nosological validity, which is difficult to differentiate from high-functioning autism. Even today these disorders are unfortunately diagnosed very late, often in the wake of earlier, different diagnoses. The purpose of this study is to present a screening instrument (MBAS), which is sensitive to these disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  The instrument was tested among a total of 91 probands (44 of whom had been diagnosed as autistic, and 47 of whom had been diagnosed with a non-autistic disorder).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The items on the MBAS were of average difficulty; generally, the all item-total correlation was good. The total scale has an internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha = .91 and the convergent validity of the MBAS and the ADI-R reached r = .61 (p = .001). The total score of the questionnaire discriminated highly significantly between the group with autism and that without. At a sensitivity of 95.5% and a specificity of 95.7% the number of misclassifications is low. False negative classifications occurred only in the case of very young children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MBAS is a reliable and valid instrument for screening and generating tentative diagnoses of high-functioning autism. The questionnaire is well suited for the selection and generation of tentative diagnoses of autism on a high-functioning level.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und -psychotherapie der Philipps-Universität Marburg. kampbeck@med.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kamp-Becker
authors.forename: Fritz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mattejat
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wolf-Ostermann
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Remschmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results