title: Preliminary evidence suggesting caution in the use of psychiatric self-report measures with adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: This study investigated the utility of self-report measures to screen for psychiatric comorbidities in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Thirty-eight 10-17 year olds with an ASD and without mental retardation completed: theChildren's Depression Inventory-Short version(CDI-S),Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale(RCMAS),Conners-Wells Adolescent Self-report Scale-Short edition(CASS-S), andShort Leyton Obsessional Inventory-Child Version(SLOI-CV). Their parents were interviewed with theAutism Comorbidity Interview-Present and Lifetime(ACI-PL) to establish psychiatric diagnoses. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and reliability coefficients were calculated for each self-report and compared to values from literature. TheCDI-SandCASS-Syielded a high number of false negatives, with lower sensitivities and specificities in the sample than the literature. There was a nearly significant difference in total meanRCMASscores between participants with and without anxiety, though again the means for both groups were below the threshold of concern. TheSLOI-CVyielded a high false positive rate. All four instruments had reliability coefficients comparable to literature values. Results must be considered preliminary due to sample size. However, the findings suggest that although self-report instruments may provide useful information in the diagnosis of psychiatric comorbidities in ASD, caution must be exercised in their interpretation.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Mazefsky
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Oswald
keywords: Anxiety; Asperger’s disorder; Assessment; Autism; Psychiatric comorbidity; Self-report