Brief report: autism in individuals with Down syndrome.
As an off-shoot of a study examining the reliability and validity of an adapted version of the Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (A-PL-ADOS), 13 individuals with Down syndrome with IQs ranging between 24 and 48 were administered the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the A-PL-ADOS, which are well-validated interview and observational diagnostic measures. Three out of 13 met lifetime criteria on the ADI-R, but none of these three showed behavior that met the criterion for autism on the A-PL-ADOS (although two nearly did so). However, two individuals did meet the A-PL-ADOS criterion and showed behavior that fell only just short of meeting lifetime criteria on the ADI-R. Altogether, 5 individuals with Down syndrome may be considered to show an autism spectrum disorder. Of the remaining 8, some showed a few autistic features, and some showed none. The findings raise both methodological and conceptual issues.
Starr
Elizabeth M
EM
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, University of London, UK. estarr@uwindsor.ca
Berument
Sibel Kazak
SK
Tomlins
Megan
M
Papanikolaou
Katerina
K
Rutter
Michael
M
D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires