Children Who Are Out Of The Autism Spectrum Develop Related Psychiatric Conditions Such As Compulsions, Anxiety

Other psychiatric conditions start to develop after children lose their autism diagnosis and move out of the autism spectrum. Some of these conditions include anxiety and compulsion.

Spectrum News reported that nine percent of children with autism achieve an optimal outcome. But most of the children from this percentage develop related conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder later after they move out of the autism spectrum.

The lead investigator of the study, Nahit Motavalli Mukaddes, said in a statement that most of the aforementioned percentage develop other psychiatric disorders and this is not the first study to report such. Mukaddes, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Istanbul Institute of Child Psychiatry in Turkey, said that the sample population includes children living in Turkey so it is possible that other children in other parts of the world would not have the same development after moving out of the autism spectrum.

Cultural differences, sociopolitical stress and how psychiatric conditions are diagnosed and treated have to be looked into. A total of 21 male children and five females were part of the study. They received autism diagnosis when they were in preschool but lost it two years before the study started.

The children are currently aged 6 to 16 years old. Part of the process to look at the possible other psychiatric disorders that they developed was the checking of the medical records of the children in order to look into their initial autism diagnosis. The children were re-evaluated to confirm if they no longer have autism via the Childhood Autism Rating Scale and Social Communication Questionnaire.

Twenty-four of the 26 children were treated for psychiatric condition at some point while 21 met the criteria for psychiatric conditions other than autism, Pub Med reported. The study was published last Nov. 12 on Pediatrics International.

Some of those psychiatric diagnoses other than autism are ADHD, specific phobia, severe anxiety about objects or situations and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The study advised that these children should still undergo continued care.