CHANGES IN VARIOUS CLINICAL MEASURES IN PATIENTS WITH ASPERGER DISORDER AND PDD-NOS. EFFECTS OF A GROUP TREATMENT

Background: Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are characterized by delays in the development of multiple basic functions, especially in language and communication deficits and lack of social relationships. Cognitive deficits embrace stiffness, short number of interests, motor stereotypical behaviour and lack of mental theory. Asperger patients have higher verbal performance, however, their language, including their non-verbal communication, is unfit in a multitude of social situations.

Objectives: The training in social skills, abilities of effective communication, and empathy, among others, are shown as important parts of psychology treatment to patients with this disorder.

Methods: In our study, parents of eight children (8 to 10 years of age) who were diagnosed with Asperger disorder or PDD-NOS completed a series of questionnaires (Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test CAST, Australian Scale for Asperger Disorder, and Vineland developmental scales) and answered the Autism Diagnostic Interview ADI-R. Children attend social and emotional skill groups during 9 month period (October to June), one every 15 days. The contents in the group are dynamically trained, with role-playing and tasks to do in their natural context (home and school). The themes learned are: recognition of feelings, self-control, problem solving, communication skills (assertiveness, improved eye contact...), self-esteem...

Results: A global scores improvement in the questionnaires (to be assessed on March 2008) is expected only after the patients have completed most of the group sessions. We especially hypothesize that in ADIR-R, language and communication performance, social and play development, and aggressive behaviour will improve significantly in comparison to the answers obtained at the beginning of the course.

Conclusions: Attending to the questionnaires, in the Australian scale, improvements in scores (under a 2 in more items than in the pretest) are hypothesized as well as in the social-emotional and communication scales, in the Vineland and in the CAST test, it is expected that the overall scores decrease.