Trends in Developmental, Behavioural and Somatic Factors by Diagnostic Sub-Group in Pervasive Developmental Disorders: A Follow up Analysis

Differences in the frequency of several somatic conditions have been tentatively reported between the diagnostic sub-groups
of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of a database was used to test these preliminary
findings. A sample of 1189 children diagnosed with autism (n = 267), Asperger syndrome (n = 210) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
(n = 712) were included for study. Parental reporting of PDD sub-groups provided a number of significant (P  0.01) differentiating developmental and behavioral items concomitant with diagnostic guidelines and anticipated level of functioning per grouping.
Significant somatic discriminators previously reported between the sub-groups were corroborated; most notably a reported history of
the bacterial skin infection impetigo. The majority of the somatic items identified were specifically related to a diagnosis of Asperger
syndrome.