Assessing Autism in Adults: An Evaluation of the Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview-Adult Version (3Di-Adult).
William Mandy, Kiri Clarke, Michele McKenner and 6 others
PMID 29116420WHAT IT FOUND
An informant interview usually identified adults with autism correctly in 88 participants, including people with other mental health conditions.
It took about 30 to 50 minutes and should support, not replace, clinical diagnosis.
Key findings
01The A-scale and B-scale produced highly consistent scores (0.97 and 0.93), and agreement between raters was very high (0.99).
02Adults with ASC scored higher than both comparison groups on every subscale, and the scales separated ASC from comparison participants with reported discrimination scores of 0.98 and 0.97.
03Two ASC participants were not identified, and four clinical comparison participants were classified as ASC.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was a preliminary validation, not a test in consecutive referrals to a specialist autism service. The clinical comparison group had mixed diagnoses that were not confirmed by a structured psychiatric interview. The sample did not include people with intellectual disability. Researchers were not blind to group, which could have favoured the interview. The ASC group had more men than the comparison groups. There were too few participants to test whether telephone versus face-to-face administration or mother versus other informant changed scores.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the 3Di-Adult as a stand-alone diagnosis. Two ASC participants were not identified, and four clinical comparison participants were classified as ASC. The authors say diagnosis needs clinician consensus and multimodal assessment.