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Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are two of the most represented neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood. The diagnostic shift introduced by the DSM-5, allowing a combined diagnosis of ADHD and ASD, poses different clinical challenges related to...

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Autores principales: Aiello, Stefania, Vagni, David, Cerasa, Antonio, Leonardi, Elisa, Carrozza, Cristina, Famà, Francesca, Campisi, Agrippina, Marino, Flavia, Siracusano, Rosamaria, Alquino, Maria Ausilia, Mainiero, Francesco, Germano, Eva, Tartarisco, Gennaro, Pioggia, Giovanni, Gagliano, Antonella, Ruta, Liliana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8649805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34887721
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.734177
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author Aiello, Stefania
Vagni, David
Cerasa, Antonio
Leonardi, Elisa
Carrozza, Cristina
Famà, Francesca
Campisi, Agrippina
Marino, Flavia
Siracusano, Rosamaria
Alquino, Maria Ausilia
Mainiero, Francesco
Germano, Eva
Tartarisco, Gennaro
Pioggia, Giovanni
Gagliano, Antonella
Ruta, Liliana
author_facet Aiello, Stefania
Vagni, David
Cerasa, Antonio
Leonardi, Elisa
Carrozza, Cristina
Famà, Francesca
Campisi, Agrippina
Marino, Flavia
Siracusano, Rosamaria
Alquino, Maria Ausilia
Mainiero, Francesco
Germano, Eva
Tartarisco, Gennaro
Pioggia, Giovanni
Gagliano, Antonella
Ruta, Liliana
author_sort Aiello, Stefania
collection PubMed
description Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are two of the most represented neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood. The diagnostic shift introduced by the DSM-5, allowing a combined diagnosis of ADHD and ASD, poses different clinical challenges related to diagnostic overshadowing, accuracy of clinical judgment and potential delay in an ASD diagnosis in children presenting with ADHD. Here we tried to disentangle the clinical phenotype and specificity of the two co-occurring conditions in relation to autism traits and empathy, by comparing children with ASD with and without comorbid ADHD with children presenting ADHD only and children with typical development. The child versions of the Autism Quotient (C-AQ) and Empathy Quotient (C-EQ) were administered to a total sample of 198 male children between 6 and 14 years old with age appropriate language skills and normal intelligence. Univariate analysis demonstrated no significant differences in the C-AQ total and subscale scores as well as the C-EQ between children with ASD and children with ASD + ADHD, while children with ADHD alone presented an intermediate phenotype between ASD and TD. Furthermore, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to discriminate among the different phenotypes. We found that the C-AQ and C-EQ were accurate at distinguishing with satisfactory reliability between: (a) ASD vs. non- ASD (N-ASD) groups comprising both ADHD and TD children (Area Under the Curve AUC 88% for C-AQ and 81% for C-EQ); (b) ASD and TD (AUC 92% for C-AQ and 95% for C-EQ); (c) ASD and ADHD (AUC 80% for C-AQ and 68% for C-EQ). Our data confirm the reliability of the C-AQ and C-EQ as behavioral markers to differentiate ASD (regardless of comorbid ADHD) from an ADHD condition and TD. Interestingly, in our sample an ADHD condition does not increase the severity of the clinical phenotype in terms of autism traits distribution and empathy, suggesting that the psychological measures detected by the two quantitative instruments are independent of ADHD traits. This evidence will contribute to the translational efforts in developing better tailored treatments and preventive strategies.
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spelling pubmed-86498052021-12-08 Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder Aiello, Stefania Vagni, David Cerasa, Antonio Leonardi, Elisa Carrozza, Cristina Famà, Francesca Campisi, Agrippina Marino, Flavia Siracusano, Rosamaria Alquino, Maria Ausilia Mainiero, Francesco Germano, Eva Tartarisco, Gennaro Pioggia, Giovanni Gagliano, Antonella Ruta, Liliana Front Neurosci Neuroscience Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are two of the most represented neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood. The diagnostic shift introduced by the DSM-5, allowing a combined diagnosis of ADHD and ASD, poses different clinical challenges related to diagnostic overshadowing, accuracy of clinical judgment and potential delay in an ASD diagnosis in children presenting with ADHD. Here we tried to disentangle the clinical phenotype and specificity of the two co-occurring conditions in relation to autism traits and empathy, by comparing children with ASD with and without comorbid ADHD with children presenting ADHD only and children with typical development. The child versions of the Autism Quotient (C-AQ) and Empathy Quotient (C-EQ) were administered to a total sample of 198 male children between 6 and 14 years old with age appropriate language skills and normal intelligence. Univariate analysis demonstrated no significant differences in the C-AQ total and subscale scores as well as the C-EQ between children with ASD and children with ASD + ADHD, while children with ADHD alone presented an intermediate phenotype between ASD and TD. Furthermore, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to discriminate among the different phenotypes. We found that the C-AQ and C-EQ were accurate at distinguishing with satisfactory reliability between: (a) ASD vs. non- ASD (N-ASD) groups comprising both ADHD and TD children (Area Under the Curve AUC 88% for C-AQ and 81% for C-EQ); (b) ASD and TD (AUC 92% for C-AQ and 95% for C-EQ); (c) ASD and ADHD (AUC 80% for C-AQ and 68% for C-EQ). Our data confirm the reliability of the C-AQ and C-EQ as behavioral markers to differentiate ASD (regardless of comorbid ADHD) from an ADHD condition and TD. Interestingly, in our sample an ADHD condition does not increase the severity of the clinical phenotype in terms of autism traits distribution and empathy, suggesting that the psychological measures detected by the two quantitative instruments are independent of ADHD traits. This evidence will contribute to the translational efforts in developing better tailored treatments and preventive strategies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8649805/ /pubmed/34887721 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.734177 Text en Copyright © 2021 Aiello, Vagni, Cerasa, Leonardi, Carrozza, Famà, Campisi, Marino, Siracusano, Alquino, Mainiero, Germano, Tartarisco, Pioggia, Gagliano and Ruta. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Aiello, Stefania
Vagni, David
Cerasa, Antonio
Leonardi, Elisa
Carrozza, Cristina
Famà, Francesca
Campisi, Agrippina
Marino, Flavia
Siracusano, Rosamaria
Alquino, Maria Ausilia
Mainiero, Francesco
Germano, Eva
Tartarisco, Gennaro
Pioggia, Giovanni
Gagliano, Antonella
Ruta, Liliana
Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_fullStr Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full_unstemmed Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_short Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_sort autistic traits and empathy in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and co-occurring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder/autism spectrum disorder
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8649805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34887721
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.734177
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