Autistic spectrum disorders in (relative) highfunctioning children and adolescents: Functional differentation through multivariate analysis

Abstract

In this work the profiles of psychological functioning were studied within a group of 30 (relative) high-functioning children and adolescents, diagnosed of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) and other psychopathological severe disorders in childhood. Carrying out multivariate analysis (discriminant analysis) of the behavioural, cognitive and communicative characteristics of this group (extracted from the review of the clinical stories and from interviews to their parents and to the subjects themselves), we obtained three different patterns of psychological functioning, which discriminate the subjects better than the categories of the DSM-IV-R. Clinical topics are discussed on the diagnostic classification of these groups of subjects, as well as the lack of correspondence between groups derived from clinical versus functional criteria.