Friday, July 07, 2006

PDD-NOS Diagnoses

This news wire article refers to a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry which reports that many young children first diagnosed with less severe conditions -- called pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) -- later have their diagnoses changed to autism.

"The researchers...followed 192 children referred for evaluation for possible autism before 36 months of age, plus 22 children with developmental delays between ages 13 and 35 months. At age 9, 172 of these children were available for reevaluation.
According to their report in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers found that at age 9, most of the changes in diagnosis were "associated with increasing certainty of classifications moving from ASD/PDD-NOS to autism."
More than half of those initially diagnosed with PDD-NOS later met the criteria for autism, Lord's team indicates. Conversely, only one of 84 children diagnosed with autism at age 2 years was found to not have the condition at 9 years of age."

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