Extreme (“pathological”) demand avoidance in autism: a general population study in the Faroe Islands
2015
Research into
Pathological Demand Avoidance(PDA), which has been suggested to be a subgroup within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (
ASD), is almost nonexistent in spite of the frequent reference to the condition in clinical practice. The total population of 15 to 24-year-olds in the Faroe Islands was screened for
ASD, and 67 individuals were identified who met diagnostic criteria for
ASD(corresponding to a general population prevalence of
ASDof almost 1 %). Of these 67, 50 had parents who were interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview for Social and
Communication Disorders(DISCO-11) which contains 15 “PDA-specific” items. Nine individuals met criteria for “possible clinical diagnosis of PDA”, meaning that almost one in five of all with
ASDalso had indications of having had PDA in childhood, and that 0.18 % of the total population had had the combination of
ASDand PDA. However, at the time of assessment, only one of the 9 individuals with possible PDA still met “full criteria”. PDA possibly constitutes a considerable minority of all cases with
ASDdiagnosed in childhood, but criteria for the condition are unlikely to be still met in later adolescence and early adult life.
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