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Diagnosis and classification in autism

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Abstract

This study compared four systems for the diagnosis of autism (DSM-III, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and ICD-10) with two empirically derived taxa of autism, and with three social subgroups of autism (Aloof, Passive, and Active-but-Odd) in 194 preschool children with salient social impairment. There were significant behavior and IQ differences between autistic and other-PDD groups for all four diagnostic systems, and a significant association was found (a) for Taxon B, diagnoses of autism, and the Aloof subgroup, and (b) for Taxon A, other-PDD, and the Active-but-Odd subgroup. Findings offer support for two major overlapping continua within idiopathic Pervasive Developmental Disorder.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia State University, USA

    Robin Morris

  2. Trenton State College, 226 Bray Hall, 08650-4700, Trenton, New Jersey

    Lynn Waterhouse

  3. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA

    Doris Allen, Michelle Dunn & Isabelle Rapin

  4. University of Connecticut, USA

    Deborah Fein

  5. Kennedy Krieger Institute and The Johns Hopkins Medical School, USA

    Carl Feinstein

  6. Centre for Social and Communication Disorders, Bromley Kent, England

    Lorna Wing

Authors
  1. Lynn Waterhouse
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  2. Robin Morris
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  3. Doris Allen
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  4. Michelle Dunn
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  5. Deborah Fein
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  6. Carl Feinstein
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  7. Isabelle Rapin
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  8. Lorna Wing
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Additional information

This study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant NS 20489 to the Autism and Language Disorders Collaborative Project: Preschool Study Group. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Robert Golden, Dorothy Aram, and Barbara Wilson to this study. The authors thank Dolores Drake and Maura McGovern Graber for assistance in the preparation of this paper, and thank Cathy Lord and several anonymous reviewers for their help in developing the structure of this paper.

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Waterhouse, L., Morris, R., Allen, D. et al. Diagnosis and classification in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 26, 59–86 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02276235

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