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Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations

The “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) construct and its current diagnostic criteria have led to the inclusion of increasingly heterogeneous and decreasingly atypical individuals under its definition. This broad category, based on the polymorphic clinical expression of common genetic variants underpin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Defresne, Pierre, Mottron, Laurent
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9065488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437211041469
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author Defresne, Pierre
Mottron, Laurent
author_facet Defresne, Pierre
Mottron, Laurent
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description The “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) construct and its current diagnostic criteria have led to the inclusion of increasingly heterogeneous and decreasingly atypical individuals under its definition. This broad category, based on the polymorphic clinical expression of common genetic variants underpinning the risk of autism, is likely beneficial for certain individuals. However, determining the boundaries between ASD and typical individuals, as well as those with other neurodevelopmental conditions, remains an issue of which the importance is growing with the increase in ASD prevalence. We identified four clinical contexts associated with a questionable, poorly justified, or unhelpful ASD diagnosis: (1) those in which diagnostic instruments raise uncertainties, (2) in the context of a subclinical presentation, (3) when early autistic signs tend to fade away during development, and (4) when comorbidities are prominent. We argue that in certain cases, a diagnosis of ASD may not be the most suitable, timely, or helpful medical act and provide recommendations for clinical practice when facing such situations.
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spelling pubmed-90654882022-05-04 Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations Defresne, Pierre Mottron, Laurent Can J Psychiatry Perspective The “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) construct and its current diagnostic criteria have led to the inclusion of increasingly heterogeneous and decreasingly atypical individuals under its definition. This broad category, based on the polymorphic clinical expression of common genetic variants underpinning the risk of autism, is likely beneficial for certain individuals. However, determining the boundaries between ASD and typical individuals, as well as those with other neurodevelopmental conditions, remains an issue of which the importance is growing with the increase in ASD prevalence. We identified four clinical contexts associated with a questionable, poorly justified, or unhelpful ASD diagnosis: (1) those in which diagnostic instruments raise uncertainties, (2) in the context of a subclinical presentation, (3) when early autistic signs tend to fade away during development, and (4) when comorbidities are prominent. We argue that in certain cases, a diagnosis of ASD may not be the most suitable, timely, or helpful medical act and provide recommendations for clinical practice when facing such situations. SAGE Publications 2021-09-06 2022-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9065488/ /pubmed/34482753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437211041469 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Perspective
Defresne, Pierre
Mottron, Laurent
Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title_full Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title_fullStr Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title_full_unstemmed Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title_short Clinical Situations in Which the Diagnosis of Autism is Debatable: An Analysis and Recommendations
title_sort clinical situations in which the diagnosis of autism is debatable: an analysis and recommendations
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9065488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437211041469
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