Investigating the factors underlying adaptive functioning in autism in the EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project
Tillmann, Julian; Caceres, Antonia San Jose; Chatham, Chris H.; Crawley, Daisy; Holt, Rosemary; Oakley, Bethany; Banaschewski, Tobias; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Boelte, Sven; Buitelaar, Jan K.; Durston, Sarah; Ham, Lindsay; Loth, Eva; Simonoff, Emily; Spooren, Will; Murphy, Declan G.; Charman, Tony; Ahmad, Jumana; Ambrosino, Sara; Auyeung, Bonnie; Baumeister, Sarah; Beckmann, Christian; Bourgeron, Thomas; Bours, Carsten; Brammer, Michael; Brandeis, Daniel; Brogna, Claudia; de Bruijn, Yvette; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev; Cornelissen, Ineke; Dell'Acqua, Flavio; Dumas, Guillaume; Ecker, Christine; Faulkner, Jessica; Frouin, Vincent; Garces, Pilar; Goyard, David; Hayward, Hannah; Hipp, Joerg; Johnson, Mark H.; Jones, Emily J. H.; Kundu, Prantik; Lai, Meng-Chuan; D'ardhuy, Xavier Liogier; Lombardo, Michael; Lythgoe, David J.; Mandl, Rene; Mason, Luke; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Oranje, Bob
(2019) Autism Research, volume 12, issue 4, pp. 645 - 657
(Article)
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit significant impairments in adaptive functioning that impact on their ability to meet the demands of everyday life. A recurrent finding is that there is a pronounced discrepancy between level of cognitive ability and adaptive functioning, and this is particularly prominent among higher-ability individuals.
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However, the key clinical and demographic associations of these discrepancies remain unclear. This study included a sample of 417 children, adolescents, and adults with ASD as part of the EU-AIMS LEAP cohort. We examined how age, sex, IQ, levels of ASD symptom and autistic trait severity and psychiatric symptomatology are associated with adaptive functioning as measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition and IQ-adaptive functioning discrepancies. Older age, lower IQ and higher social-communication symptoms were associated with lower adaptive functioning. Results also demonstrate that older age, higher IQ and higher social-communication symptoms are associated with greater IQ-adaptive functioning discrepancy scores. By contrast, sensory ASD symptoms, repetitive and restricted behaviors, as well as symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression, were not associated with adaptive functioning or IQ-adaptive functioning discrepancy scores. These findings suggest that it is the core social communication problems that define ASD that contribute to adaptive function impairments that people with ASD experience. They show for the first time that sensory symptoms, repetitive behavior and associated psychiatric symptoms do not independently contribute to adaptive function impairments. Individuals with ASD require supportive interventions across the lifespan that take account of social-communicative ASD symptom severity. Autism Res 2019, 12: 645–657.
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Keywords: adaptive functioning, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual functioning, psychiatric symptoms, symptom severity, General Neuroscience, Clinical Neurology, Genetics(clinical)
ISSN: 1939-3792
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Note: Funding Information: Chris Chatham, Lindsay Ham and Will Spooren are employees at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Emily Simonoff receives support from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grant for Applied Research, a Senior Investigator Award and though the NIHR South London and Maudsley NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. She also receives funding from the European Medicine Innovative Medicines Initiative (EU-AIMS), the Medical Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council, Autistica and the Maudsley Charity. No other conflict of interests declared. Funding Information: We thank all participants and their families for their efforts to participate in the study. This work was supported by EU-AIMS (European Autism Interventions), which receives support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115300, the resources of which are composed of financial contributions from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (grant FP7/2007-2013), from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations companies’ in-kind contributions, and from Autism Speaks. We also acknowledge the contributions of the whole EU-AIMS LEAP group: Jumana Ahmad, Sara Ambro-sino, Bonnie Auyeung, Sarah Baumeister, Christian Beckmann, Thomas Bourgeron, Carsten Bours, Michael Brammer, Daniel Brandeis, Claudia Brogna, Yvette de Bruijn, Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Ineke Cornelissen, Flavio Dell’ Acqua, Guillaume Dumas, Christine Ecker, Jessica Faulkner, Vincent Frouin, Pilar Garcés, David Goyard, Hannah Hayward, Joerg Hipp, Mark H. Johnson, Emily J.H. Jones, Prantik Kundu, Meng-Chuan Lai, Xavier Liogier D’ardhuy, Michael Lombardo, David J. Lythgoe, René Mandl, Luke Mason, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Carolin Moessnang, Nico Mueller, Laurence O’Dwyer, Marianne Oldehinkel, Bob Oranje, Gahan Pandina, Antonio M. Persico, Barbara Ruggeri, Amber Ruigrok, Jessica Sabet, Roberto Sacco, Roberto Toro, Heike Tost, Jack Waldman, Steve C.R. Williams, Caroline Wooldridge, and Marcel P. Zwiers. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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