Post published on Twitter/X on 24 May 2013 23:39

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are early onset chronic conditions coined by deficits in social reciprocity, communication and stereotypic interests and activities. Other functional impairments such as mental retardation, ADHD, known genetic syndromes and epilepsy are frequent coexisting problems. ASD cause considerable suffering for the affected individuals and burden for their families. With an estimated prevalence exceeding 1%, recent population-based studies suggest that ASD are no rare phenomena. Lifetime societal costs for services and support, together with the opportunity costs of lost productivity in a prototypic developed country are estimated SEK 15.6 million for someone with and SEK 10.3 million for a person without co-existing mental retardation. Despite ongoing efforts, no diagnostically informative biomarker has yet been identified for ASD. The development, refinement and evaluation of behavioral assessment tools has therefore been decisive to progress and quality assurance in ASD clinical practice and research. The most widely used and thoroughly evaluated instruments for ASD in international child mental health are the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). The ADI-R and ADOS are deemed highly by the ASD expert community and thus commonly labeled as being the "gold standard" in ASD diagnostics. Although, Swedish translations of the ADI-R and ADOS exist, a Swedish standardization and cross-cultural validation is still lacking, impeding good clinical practice and research prerequisites for ASD in Sweden. The applied project seeks to broadly establish reliability and validity of the Swedish translations of the ADI-R and ADOS in order to enhance evidence-based clinical practice and stimulate internationally competitive ASD research in Sweden.