1. Gender differences in autism spectrum disorders: Divergence among specific core symptoms
- Author
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Isabelle Scheid, Frédérique Amsellem, Marion Leboyer, Thomas Bourgeron, Christopher Gillberg, Hugo Peyre, Richard Delorme, Anna Maruani, Maria Råstam, Anita Beggiato, and Carina Gillberg
- Subjects
Proband ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Diagnostic tools ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,5. Gender equality ,mental disorders ,medicine ,Raw score ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,10. No inequality ,Psychiatry ,Genetics (clinical) ,Resource exchange ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,medicine.disease ,Cohort ,Autism ,Neurology (clinical) ,Core symptoms ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Sex ratio ,050104 developmental & child psychology ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Community-based studies have consistently shown a sex ratio heavily skewed towards males in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The factors underlying this predominance of males are largely unknown, but the way girls score on standardized categorical diagnostic tools might account for the underrecognition of ASD in girls. Despite the existence of different norms for boys and girls with ASD on several major screening tests, the algorithm of the Autism Diagnosis Interview-Revised (ADI-R) has not been reformulated. The aim of our study was to investigate which ADI-R items discriminate between males and females, and to evaluate their weighting in the final diagnosis of autism. We then conducted discriminant analysis (DA) on a sample of 594 probands including 129 females with ASD, recruited by the Paris Autism Research International Sibpair (PARIS) Study. A replication analysis was run on an independent sample of 1716 probands including 338 females with ASD, recruited through the Autism Genetics Resource Exchange (AGRE) program. Entering the raw scores for all ADI-R items as independent variables, the DA correctly classified 78.9% of males and 72.9% of females (P
- Published
- 2016