A Demographic Description of Children and Adolescents With Concomitant Autism and Anxiety Along With a Comparison of Receipt of Psychological Services.

The analysis used billed claims from one healthcare system, so it may not represent children with autism who receive care elsewhere or who do not receive care. The records show associations at one point in time, not cause and effect, so they cannot show whether anxiety led to service receipt. The sample came from patients seen by the system, not from all children in Kentucky, so it is not a population prevalence estimate. Some services, including school-based therapy and care outside the system, were not captured. Not all autism-related services were available at the system, so some treatments would not appear in the data. Age was recorded at first encounter, not necessarily at diagnosis, so age findings may reflect when care was received rather than when autism began. Billed diagnosis and service codes may contain errors, and psychological service codes were not linked to anxiety as the reason for treatment. Patients with missing values were excluded from analyses that needed those values, which may have changed the sample. The study compares autism alone with autism plus anxiety, but anxiety itself can be an independent reason for psychotherapy, so the higher service use may not be specific to autism care.

The paper states that the authors have no conflicts of interest to report, and no funding source is given.

Do not read the higher likelihood of psychotherapy among patients with anxiety as proof that anxiety treatment improves autism or anxiety outcomes. The study used billed records from one healthcare system, so it shows recorded diagnoses and services received, not service effectiveness, treatment indication, or whether patients needed more services.