Diagnostic, Clinical, Psychopathological, Psychological Aspects of the Examination of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Objective: recently, much attention has been paid to the problem of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in childhood. Despite the abundance of psychometric approaches to the diagnosis of autism in childhood, questions remain about the validity of their use in everyday practice. In recent years, works began to appear in the United States calling into question the practice of mandatory use of the “gold standard” methods for diagnosing ASD. Russia has many years of experience in multidisciplinary cooperation of medical psychologists and clinicians in child psychiatric practice, which makes it possible to more accurately determine the depth and severity of autistic manifestations, as well as to determine the dynamics of a child’s development, which will make it possible to provide targeted effective assistance. Aim: to develop diagnostic, clinical-psychopathological, psychological approaches to the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in childhood. Patients and methods: the sample consists of 254 patients aged 4–17 years (average age 7.3 years) with different forms of ASD according to ICD-10 (heading F84). The patients were examined by clinical-psychopathological, clinical-dynamic, clinical-follow-up, psychological methods. Results: the study made it possible to define the profiles of six main forms of ASD from a clinical and psychological standpoint: Asperger’s syndrome (F84.5); childhood autism dysontogenetic (F84.0); childhood psychosis (F84.02); Kanner’s syndrome (F84.01), syndromic atypical autism (F84.11), and atypical childhood psychosis (F84.12). Conclusion: the results obtained are presented in a multidisciplinary aspect, which allows the most accurately diagnose one form or another of autism spectrum disorders and to develop personalized routes of patient management.