Autism Symptom Clustering Scale: a Tool for Management of ASD

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder defined across a wide spectrum of diagnostic elements. This complicates attempts to develop an overall measure or index of management burden.

Objectives: Here the focus is on identifying a useful set of clinically relevant symptoms to develop an Autism Symptom Clustering Scale (ASCS) relevant to the assessment of caregiver burden.

Methods: Using a case cohort of 160 autistic patients, an ASCS score based on weighted averages of symptom dimensions defined clinically and via principal components is developed for Asperger’s, PDD-NOS and clinical autism groups that together make up the autism spectrum.

Results: The ASCS score differentiates the clinical autism group versus other sub-groups making up the autism spectrum. The burden measure is also examined across gender and age group demographic sub-groups.

Conclusions: This work demonstrates that it is possible to develop useful clinical symptom based scales relevant to the identification of case management related sub-groups within the ASD diagnostic spectrum.