Evaluation of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Early Childhood According to the DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to investigate, the DSM5 criteria of, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social Communication Disorder (SCD) in young children previously diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) on the DSM-IV-TR, and to evaluate the effects of the symptom severity, emotional-behavioral problems, and age and gender differences on the diagnoses.

METHOD

The study included 80 children between the ages of 18-72 months, who were diagnosed with PDD on the DSM-IV-TR criteria. The severity of autistic symptoms was measured by the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). The presence of behavioral and emotional problems were evaluated by the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (AbBC).

RESULTS

Among the patients previously diagnosed with PDD, 9 (11.8%) did not meet the DSM-5 ASD criteria; 6 (7.9%) met the SCD criteria while 3 could not be assessed on the SCD criteria due to their small age and therefore not included in either diagnostic classes. The mean CARS, ABC and AbBC scores of the patients who met the ASD criteria, as compared to those who did not, were significantly higher. The two groups did not differ significantly with respect to the gender distribution and mean age.

CONCLUSION

The patients who had more and severe autistic symptoms had a higher likelihood of getting an ASD diagnosis based on the DSM-5 criteria. The diagnosis of the patients with subthreshold ASD symptoms may be missed on the basis of the new diagnostic criteria.