The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP): clinical characterisation.
Tony Charman, Eva Loth, Julian Tillmann and 62 others
PMID 28649313WHAT IT FOUND
Autism symptoms looked more severe in males than females on clinician and parent interview measures, but parent questionnaires showed no sex difference and adult females reported higher symptoms.
Adults had lower parent-reported symptoms than children.
Key findings
01The baseline cohort had 737 participants, and within the autism group males had higher scores than females on clinician-rated and parent interview diagnostic measures, but parent-report questionnaires showed no sex difference and self-report showed higher female scores.
02Adults had lower parent-reported autism symptom scores than children and adolescents on SRS-2 and RBS-R, while ADOS and ADI-R diagnostic scores did not differ across schedules.
03Among children with autism, 51% scored in the clinical range for inattentiveness and 28% for hyperactivity/impulsivity, and adult females self-reported higher depressive symptoms than adult males.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study reported only baseline data, so differences between age groups cannot show change over time. People with intellectual disability below the study's IQ cutoff were mostly excluded, and the cohort had higher IQ than the broader autism population. Recruitment came from research cohorts, clinics, schools and communities, and some sites recruited different age groups, so site differences may affect the results. Psychiatric symptoms were measured by screening questionnaires, not diagnostic interviews, so clinical-range scores are not diagnoses. No intervention was tested, so the findings cannot support treatment efficacy.
Declared interests
The funder named was the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking. The supplied text did not report author conflict-of-interest declarations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read lower parent-reported symptom scores in adults as evidence that autism symptoms improve with age. The study measured participants at one baseline time point, so age group differences may reflect who was sampled rather than change over time.