Florina RAD1, Ilinca MIHAILESCU2, Maria Cristina NEDELCU3, Alexandra BUICA4, Mihaela STANCU4,1, Ema ANDREI2, Alecsandra IRIMIE5, Cristina ANGHEL2, Iuliana DOBRESCU6
ms.stancu@yahoo.ro
1 MD, PhD, Lecturer, Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, UMF „Carol Davila”, „Prof. Dr. Al. Obregia” Psychiatry Hospital, Bucharest, Romania;
2 MD, PhD, Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, „Prof. Dr. Al. Obregia” Psychiatry Hospital, Bucharest;
3 Psychologist, Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, „Prof. Dr. Al. Obregia” Psychiatry Hospital, Bucharest;
4 MD, Ass. Prof., Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, UMF „Carol Davila”;
5 MD, trainee in Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, „Prof. Dr. Al. Obregia” Psychiatry Hospital, Bucharest;
6 MD, PhD, Professor, Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Child and adolescent Psychiatry Department, UMF „Carol Davila”, „Prof. Dr. Al. Obregia” Psychiatry Hospital, Bucharest
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are highly heterogeneous disorders. The heterogeneity of Autistic Spectrum Disorders can be determined by comorbid psychiatric disorders like ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).
The objective of this research is to analyse the outcome of a sample of preschoolers diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) comorbid with ADHD symptoms involved in an Applied Behavioural Analysis program and to compare the efficacy of ABA between this group and a control group comprised of children with ASD alone.
We monitored, using ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) and ADHD -RS (ADHD Rating Scale) at the baseline (T0) and after one year (T1), a sample of 48 children (2-5 years old) diagnosed with ASD and with ADHD symptoms. In this period the children follow an applied behavioural analysis program (2 hours / day, 5 days / week for 1 year).
After one year of applied behavioural analysis, the improvement in ADOS scores in the control group was significantly higher than for those in the study group (F=9.08, p=.00, partial Eta squared = .82).
Please cite this article as: Rad, F., Mihailescu, I., Nedelcu, M. C., Buica, A., Stancu, M., Andrei, E., … & Dobrescu, I. (2019). The outcome of a sample of pre-schoolers diagnosed with ASD comorbid with ADHD after one year of Applied Behavioural Analysis. Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies, 19(2), 109-118.
Keywords: ASD, ADHD, Applied behavioural analysis
DOI:10.24193/jebp.2019.2.16
Published online: 2019/09/01
Published print: 2019/09/01
