Abstract
We reviewed the stability of the diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). A Medline search found eight studies reiterating a diagnostic assessment for PDD-NOS. The pooled group included 322 autistic disorder (AD) and 122 PDD-NOS cases. We used percentage of individuals with same diagnose at Times 1 and 2 as response criterion. The pooled Relative Risk was 1.95 (p < 0.001) showing that AD diagnostic stability was higher than PDD-NOS. When diagnosed before 36 months PDD-NOS bore a 3-year stability rate of 35%. Examining the developmental trajectories showed that PDD-NOS corresponded to a group of heterogeneous pathological conditions including prodromic forms of later AD, remitted or less severe forms of AD, and developmental delays in interaction and communication.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revisions ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Charman, T., & Baird, G. (2002). Practitioner review: Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in 2- and 3-year-old children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(3), 289–305.
Charman, T., Taylor, E., Drew, A., Cockerill, H., Brown, J.-A., & Baird, G. (2005). Outcome at 7 years of children diagnosed with autism at age 2: Predictive validity of assessments conducted at 2 and 3 years of age and pattern of symptom change over time. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46(5), 500–513.
Chawarska, K., Klin, A., Paul, R., & Volkmar, F. (2007). Autism spectrum disorder in the second year: Stability and change in syndrome expression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(2), 128–138.
Cox, A., Charman, T., Baron-Cohen, S., Drew, A., Klein, K., Baird, G., et al. (1999). Autism spectrum disorders at 20 and 42 months of age: Stability of clinical and ADI-R diagnosis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40(5), 719–732.
Cucherat, M., Boissel, J. P., & Leizorovicz, A. (1997). EasyMA: A program for the meta-analysis of clinical trials. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedecine, 53, 187–190.
Eaves, L. C., & Ho, H. H. (2004). The very early identification of autism: Outcome to age 4½–5. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(4), 367–378.
Fombonne, E. (2005). Epidemiology of autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(suppl. 10), 3–8.
Kleinman, J. M., Ventola, P. E., Pandey, J., Verbalis, A. D., Barton, M., Hodgson, S., et al. (2008). Diagnostic stability in very young children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 606–615.
Klin, A., Lang, J., Cicchetti, D. V., & Volkmar, F. R. (2000). Brief report: Interrater reliability of clinical diagnosis and DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder: Results of the DSM-IV autism field trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30(2), 163–167.
Lord, C. (1995). Follow-up of two-year-olds referred for possible autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36(8), 1365–1382.
Lord, C., Risi, S., DiLavore, P. S., Shulman, C., Thurm, A., & Pickles, A. (2006). Autism from 2 to 9 years of age. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 694–701.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P., & Risi, S. (1999). Autism diagnostic observation schedule-WPS edition. Los Angeles, California: Western Psychological Services.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659–685.
Mahoney, W. J., Szatmari, P., MacLean, J. E., Bryson, S. E., Jones, M. B., & Zwaigenbaum, L. (1998). Reliability and accuracy of differentiating pervasive developmental disorder subtypes. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 278–285.
Matson, J. L., & Boisjoli, J. A. (2007). Differential diagnosis of PDDNOS in children. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 1, 75–84.
Moore, V., & Goodson, S. (2003). How well does early diagnosis of autism stand the test of time? Autism, 7(1), 47–63.
Saint-Georges, C., Cassel, Rs., Cohen, D., Chetouani, M., Laznik, Mc., Maestro, S., et al. (2010). What studies of family home movies can teach us about autistic infants. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 355–366.
Scahill, L. (2005). Diagnosis and evaluation of pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(Suppl 10), 19–25.
Stone, W. L., Lee, E. B., Ashford, L., Brissie, J., Hepburn, S. L., Coonrod, E. E., et al. (1999). Can autism be diagnosed accurately in children under 3 years? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40(2), 219–226.
Sutera, S., Pandey, J., Esser, E. L., Rosenthal, M. A., Wilson, L. B., Barton, M., et al. (2007). Predictors of optimal outcome in toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 98–107.
Towbin, K. E. (2005). Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders Vol. 1: Diagnosis, development, neurobiology, and behaviour (3rd ed., pp. 165–200). Hoboken: Wiley.
Turner, L. M., & Stone, W. L. (2007). Variability in outcome for children with an ASD diagnosis at age 2. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(8), 793–802.
Turner, L. M., Stone, W. L., Pozdol, S. L., & Coonrod, E. E. (2006). Follow-up of children with autism spectrum disorders from age 2 to age 9. Autism, 10(3), 243–265.
Van Daalen, E., Kemner, C., Dietz, C., Swinkels, S. H. N., Buitelaar, J. K., & Van Engeland, H. (2009). Inter-rater reliability and stability of diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder in children identified through screening at a very young age. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18, 663–674.
Walker, D. R., Thompson, A., Zwaigenbaum, L., Goldberg, J., Bryson, S. E., Mahoney, W. J., et al. (2004). Specifying PDD-NOS: A comparison of PDD-NOS, Asperger Syndrome, and Autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43(2), 172–180.
Witwer, A. N., & Lecavalier, L. (2008). Examining the validity of autism spectrum disorder subtypes. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1611–1624.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rondeau, E., Klein, L.S., Masse, A. et al. Is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified Less Stable Than Autistic Disorder? A Meta-Analysis. J Autism Dev Disord 41, 1267–1276 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1155-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1155-z