A Clinical Study to Assess the Neuropsychiatric Comorbidity in Established Cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may present with multiple neuropsychiatric comorbidities which may invariably influence the symptoms of the primary diagnosis and may affect treatment plans and outcomes . Despite the profound effect of comorbidities on ASD children, information regarding the occurrence and relation of neuropsychiatric comorbidities with severity of ASD is limited.

Aim:  In view of this, the present study was aimed 1) To assess the occurrence and pattern of comorbid neuropsychiatric condition in children with ASD,2) To assess the relation between the severity of ASD and its neuropsychiatric co-morbidities.

Methods : It was a cross sectional study with a sample size of 50 children attending psychiatry OPD or admitted in psychiatry ward of the institute. Univariate analyses were used to examine associations between neuropsychiatric comorbidities and dependent variable (severity of ASD) using chi square test.

Results: 72 % of the children in our study had one comorbid illness or the other. The most common neuropsychiatric comorbidity was intellectual disability(58.33%) followed by ADHD  (33.3%)  and  Childhood onset psychosis (19%) respectively. A significant association was found between ADHD and severity of ASD and the value of chi-square was 6.049 which was significant (p=0.045<0.05).

Conclusion: The presence of neuropsychiatric comordities  invariably affect the clinical presentation of ASD children. Comorbid ADHD presents additional risk in children with ASD and these findings may encourage clinicians to thoroughly assess ADHD symptomatology in ASD children for better outcome in treatment.