Madhumitha Parvathy I.1, Rajam Krishna Subramanian2, Renuka Devi M.R.3
BACKGROUND
Autism is a complex developmental disorder that is not fully understood and is still
debated. Till recently, there is no standardised treatment option for autism, earlier
the diagnosis better the prognosis but there are only few Indian studies to
establish the relationship between early diagnosis and effectiveness of treatment
in autistic children and hence this study was conducted.
METHODS
This was a cross sectional study. Parents of 51 autistic children were asked to fill
the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2) questionnaire,1 which is a standard
screening questionnaire and the CARS-0 and CARS-1 scores were studied. The
therapists of the respondents were asked to fill CARS-2 questionnaire based on
the characteristics of the respondent when he / she was diagnosed and before he
/ she started his / her treatment. This score has been documented as CARS-0
score. Then another CARS-2 test was scored by the therapists / researcher based
on the present characteristics of the respondent. The relationship between CARS-
0 score and CARS-1 score, the age of diagnosis and the difference in CARS score
were investigated based on paired t-test and Pearson’s correlation. Analysis was
done using SPSS and Microsoft Excel.
RESULTS
CARS scores decreased after treatment and the decrease in CARS 1 scores was
more in age groups of 0 - 3 and 3 - 5 years as compared to 5 - 10 years. Pearson’s
correlation was done to study the association between the age of diagnosis and
the difference between CARS-0 and CARS-1 scores and a negative correlation was
seen.
CONCLUSIONS
There was a significant correlation between the age of diagnosis and the treatment
outcome in autistic children.
