Abstract
This study examined lifetime medical and psychiatric morbidity reported by caregivers of 2917 autistic adults participating in the US research cohort SPARK. Participants were 78.4% male, 47.3% had intellectual disability, and 32.1% had persistent language impairments. Childhood language disorders (59.7%), speech/articulation problems (32.8%), sleep (39.4%) and eating problems (29.4%), motor delays (22.8%) and history of seizure (15.5%) were the most frequently reported clinical features. Over two thirds (67.2%) had been diagnosed with at least one psychiatric disorder (anxiety disorders: 41.1%; ADHD: 38.7%). Compared to verbally fluent participants, those with language impairments had lower frequencies of almost all psychiatric disorders. Female sex and older age were associated with higher medical and psychiatric morbidity.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3679-3698 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | Feb 24 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation (SPARK Award ID 383303) to EF.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- Adult
- Autism
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Intellectual disabilities
- Medical
- Psychiatric
- Sex
- SPARK
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Multicenter Study
- Journal Article