Journal of Childhood & Developmental Disorders

Impact Of Emotional Disorders In The Functionality Of Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders Review

The main object of this review is to understand how emotional disorders develop and how they may interact with the score of functioning or with the severity of symptoms in autism spectrum disorder. We hypothesize that emotional disorders may influence negatively in the functionality of these patients.

This review was based on a systematic research of published articles available up to July 2014. The initial literature search resulted in 149 citations. Of those, 21 met the inclusion criteria. Many of the unselected studies from the initial pool involved samples outside the targeted age range (e.g., adults or pre-school children) or with non-ASD developmental disabilities. This review concluded that comorbid with emotional disorders among patients with ASD may be more common than previously thought. It may have consequent impairment in their psychological profile, social adjustment, adaptive functionality, cognitive and global functioning and should alert clinicians the importance of assessing mood disorders in order to choose the appropriate treatment.

Author(s):

Marina Romero Gonzalez and Isabel P Valdivieso López

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