Acute behavioral crises in psychiatric inpatients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Recognition of concomitant medical or non-ASD psychiatric conditions predicts enhanced improvement

Publication date: March 2015 Source:Research in Developmental Disabilities, Volume 38 Author(s): Vincent Guinchat , Cora Cravero , Lautaro Diaz , Didier Périsse , Jean Xavier , Claire Amiet , Isabelle Gourfinkel-An , Nicolas Bodeau , Lee Wachtel , David Cohen , Angèle Consoli During adolescence, some individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in severe challenging behaviors, such as aggression, self-injury, disruption, agitation and tantrums. We aimed to assess risk factors associated with very acute behavioral crises in adolescents with ASD admitted to a dedicated neurobehavioral unit. We included retrospectively in 2008 and 2009 29 adolescents and young adults with ASD hospitalized for severe challenging behaviors and proposed a guideline (Perisse et al., 2010) that we applied prospectively for 29 patients recruited for the same indications between 2010 and 2012. In total, 58 patients were admitted (n =70 hospitalizations, mean age=15.66 (±4.07) years, 76% male). We systematically collected data describing socio-demographic characteristics, clinical variables (severity, presence of language, cognitive level), comorbid organic conditions, etiologic diagnosis of the episode, and treatments. We explored predictors of Global Assessment Functioning Scale (GAFS) score and duration of hospitalization at discharge. All but 2 patients exhibited severe autistic symptoms and intellectual disability (ID), and two-thirds had no functional verbal language. D...
Source: Research in Developmental Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research