Psychiatric telephone interview with parents for screening of childhood autism - tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other comorbidities (A-TAC): preliminary reliability and validity.
BACKGROUND
Reliable, valid and easily administered screening instruments would greatly facilitate large-scale neuropsychiatric research.


OBJECTIVE
To test a parent telephone interview focused on autism - tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other comorbidities (A-TAC).


METHODS
Parents of 84 children in contact with a child neuropsychiatric clinic and 27 control children were interviewed. Validity and interrater and test - retest reliability were assessed.


RESULTS
Interrater and test - retest reliability were very good. Areas under receiver operating characteristics curves between interview scores and clinical diagnoses were around 0.90 for ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders, and above 0.70 for tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder. Using optimal cut-off scores for autistic spectrum disorder and ADHD, good to excellent kappa levels for interviews and clinical diagnoses were noted.


CONCLUSIONS
The A-TAC appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for identifying autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD, tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder.
Hansson
Sara Lina
SL
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Göteborg University, Sweden.
Svanström Röjvall
Annika
A
Rastam
Maria
M
Gillberg
Carina
C
Gillberg
Christopher
C
Anckarsäter
Henrik
H
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013689:Telephone; D013981:Tic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*