Frequency of symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in autistic children

• Autor(a) principal: Pondé,Milena Pereira
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Novaes,Camila Marinho, Losapio,Mirella Fiuza
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2010000100022
• topic: autistic disorder; attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; prevalence; comorbidity

BACKGROUND: Both DSM-IV and the ICD-10 exclude diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when autism diagnostic is present. Some authors suggest, however, that autism can be associated to other comorbidity amongst which the ADHD. OBJECTIVE: To estimate prevalence of ADHD in children with autism. METHOD: Children were selected from a specialized school, all of then had previous diagnosis or diagnostic suspicion of autism. The Brazilian version of the KIDDIE-SADS PL was applied to parents for diagnostic of ADHD. DSM-IV diagnostic of autism was based on parents' interview and child observation. RESULTS: 32 children were included in the study. Results show that 53.1% of the ASD child had ADHD symptoms enough to fulfill DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, whereas 56.9% did not fulfill DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. CONCLUSION: Results suggest a high frequency of ADHD symptoms in ASD patients. Elucidating if we are facing a comorbity or an autism distinct phenotype can contribute for a more adjusted pharmacotherapy approach for these children.