Is pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified less stable than autistic disorder? A meta-analysis

We reviewed the stability of the diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). A Medline search found eight studies reiterating a diagnostic assessment for PDD-NOS. The pooled group included 322 autistic disorder (AD) and 122 PDDNOS cases. We used percentage of individuals with same diagnose at Times 1 and 2 as response criterion. The pooled Relative Risk was 1.95 (p < 0.001) showing that AD diagnostic stability was higher than PDD-NOS. When diagnosed before 36 months PDD-NOS bore a 3-year stability rate of 35%. Examining the developmental trajectories showed that PDD-NOS corresponded to a group of heterogeneous pathological conditions including prodromic forms of later AD, remitted or less severe forms of AD, and developmental delays in interaction and communication. Keywords Validity * Diagnosis * Autistic disorder * Pervasive developmental disorder * Autism * Meta-analysis
Introduction Over the past 15 years, there has been increasing interest in the early identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In that respect, several studies have examined the stability of [...]