A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF ASPERGER-SYNDROME WITH HIGH-FUNCTIONING ATYPICAL AUTISM

To test the validity of Asperger syndrome (AS) as defined in ICD-10, 2 6 patients (age range, 3.5 to 12 years) with AS and 16 patients (age r ange, 3 to 11.5 years) with high-functioning (IQ > 90) ICD-10 atypical autism (HAA) were compared on 64 clinical variables including obstetr ic risk factors, early developmental landmarks, IQ, autistic symptoms on the CARS-TV, epileptic EEG abnormalities and epilepsy. AS did not d iffer significantly from HAA on all but total and four item scores (i. e. imitation, visual responsiveness, auditory responsiveness and non-v erbal communication) on the CARS-TV, in which AS scored significantly lower than HAA. A discriminant function based on imitation and auditor y responsiveness predicted 76.2% of the 42 cases. The small difference from HAA indicates chat AS is better to be regarded as the highest-fu nctioning end of the PDD spectrum, rather than a valid subtype of PDD. However, the autistic symptom profile less distorted in AS than HAA m ay warrant a further study on its validity.