Carta Alessandra, Fucà Elisa, Guerrera Silvia, Napoli Eleonora, Valeri Giovanni, Vicari Stefano
Department of Neurosciences, Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
Section of Child Neuropsychiatry, Department of Medical, Surgical and Experimental Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2020 May 15;11:861. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00861. eCollection 2020.
Comorbidity between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a frequently reported condition. However, the clinical overlaps between the two disorders are not well characterized. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a well-documented measure of emotional and behavioral problems in children and adolescents. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether CBCL scales were able to detect psychopathological comorbidities as well as emotional and behavioral profiles across three groups of children with ASD, ADHD, and with the co-occurrence of both disorders. The results show that around 30% of participants with ASD exhibited internalizing problems, which was in line with previous findings. Co-occurrence condition showed a clinical intermediate phenotype: relative to ADHD and ASD, youths with co-occurrence of ADHD and ASD phenotype showed respectively lower ( < 0.000) and higher externalizing problems ( < 0.000). No differences emerged in internalizing problems ( > 0.05) across groups. CBCL is a useful measure to study the psychopathological conditions as well as emotional and behavioral profiles associated with ASD, ADHD, and the co-occurrence of ADHD and ASD. The identification of psychopathological and behavioral profiles associated with ASD and ADHD is crucial to perform specific and individualized treatments. Our preliminary findings suggested the existence of an intermediate and independent phenotype between ADHD and ASD that seems to be defined by the externalizing problems. Internalizing problems do not significantly differ between the combined phenotype and the two groups.
注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）之间的共病现象是一种经常被报道的情况。然而，这两种障碍之间的临床重叠特征尚未得到很好的描述。儿童行为清单（CBCL）是一种记录详尽的测量儿童和青少年情绪及行为问题的工具。本研究的目的是评估CBCL量表是否能够检测出三组儿童（患有ASD、ADHD以及同时患有这两种障碍）的精神病理共病情况以及情绪和行为特征。结果显示，约30%的ASD参与者表现出内化问题，这与之前的研究结果一致。共病情况呈现出一种临床中间表型：相对于ADHD和ASD，同时患有ADHD和ASD表型的青少年分别表现出较低（<0.000）和较高（<0.000）的外化问题。各组在内化问题方面未出现差异（>0.05）。CBCL是研究与ASD、ADHD以及ADHD和ASD共病相关的精神病理状况以及情绪和行为特征的有用工具。识别与ASD和ADHD相关的精神病理和行为特征对于实施特定的个体化治疗至关重要。我们的初步研究结果表明，在ADHD和ASD之间存在一种中间且独立的表型，这种表型似乎由外化问题所定义。合并表型与两组之间在内化问题上没有显著差异。
