TITLE:
Dimensional Characteristics of Children and Adolescents with Mood Disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders
AUTHORS:
Bill J. Duke, Dennis Staton
KEYWORDS:
Autism Spectrum Disorders; Mood Disorders; Children; Actigraphy; Sleep
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.4 No.12,
December
30,
2013
ABSTRACT: Objective: We
sought to identify clinical discriminators between predominantly mood
disordered and predominantly autism spectrum disordered research subjects that
may reflect phenotypic state and treatment response characteristics. Method: Participants were 26 boys and 4
girls aged 2 to 18 years (Mean Age = 7.70). Subjects with DSM-IV diagnoses of
Major depression (N = 2), Bipolar Disorder (N = 4) and Mood Disorder not
otherwise specified (NOS) (N = 11) represented the mood disorder group (MD) (N
= 17, Mean Age = 8.2) and those with diagnoses of Autistic Disorder (N = 1),
Asperger’s Disorder (7) or
Pervasive Developmental Disorder (NOS) (N = 3) comprised the autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) group (N = 9, Mean Age = 6.8). Primary outcome measurements were
continuous actigraphic measurements collected over one to three week periods.
Secondary outcomes included personality and observational measurements.
Personality characteristics reflected significant cross-group impairments related to self-control and
self-discipline and differed relative to intellectual measures. Observational
measurements reflected greater general impairments among the ASD group. Results: Predominantly mood disordered
children demonstrated greater impairments related to sleep (P = 0.000) and sleep onset latency (P = 0.000) and were more active than ASD
children during evening periods (P = 0.000). ASD children had lower verbal functioning and greater deviations
from the norm on measures of cognitive development (P = 0.003) and psychosis (P = 0.047). Conclusions: Sleep disturbances, evening activity levels and phase
delayed sleep appear to differentiate predominant mood and autism spectrum disordered children
suggesting future areas for further exploration of neurological and phenotypic
treatment response characteristics.