title: Developmental course of autistic social impairment in males.
abstract: Recent research has suggested that autistic social impairment (ASI) is continuously distributed in nature and that subtle autistic-like social impairments aggregate in the family members of children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs). This study examined the longitudinal course of quantitatively characterized ASI in 3- to 18-year-old boys with and without PDD. We obtained assessments of 95 epidemiologically ascertained male-male twin pairs and a clinical sample of 95 affected children using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), at two time points, spaced 1-5 years apart. Longitudinal course was examined as a function of age, familial loading for PDD, and autistic severity at baseline. Interindividual variation in SRS scores was highly preserved over time, with test-retest correlation of 0.90 for the entire sample. SRS scores exhibited modest general improvement over the study period; individual trajectories varied as a function of severity at baseline and were highly familial. Quantitative measurements of ASI reflect heritable traitlike characteristics. Such measurements can serve as reliable indices of phenotypic severity for genetic and neurobiologic studies, and have potential utility for ascertaining incremental response to intervention.
authors.affiliation: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. constantino@wustl.edu
authors.forename: John N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Constantino
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abbacchi
authors.forename: Patricia D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Lavesser
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Givens
authors.forename: Lily
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Teddi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Todd
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D018579:Patient Selection; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D035781:Siblings; D012919:Social Behavior; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D018433:Twin Studies as Topic