文摘
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 ASD of 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 ASD also had indications of having had PDA in childhood, and that 0.18?% of the total population had had the combination of ASD and 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 ASD diagnosed in childhood, but criteria for the condition are unlikely to be still met in later adolescence and early adult life.