The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for www.selleckchem.com/products/VX-770.html Children is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6�C16 years. The WISC-R (Revised version) [31] and the WISC-III [32] has 15 subtests which are organized into verbal and performance scales and provide scores for Verbal IQ (VIQ), Performance IQ (PIQ), Processing Speed Index (PSI), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). Individuals over the age of 16 were tested with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) [33].ADOS assessment was performed only at Time 2. The ADOS is an instrument used for diagnosing and assessing autism. The protocol consists of a series of structured and semistructured tasks that involve social interaction between the examiner and the subject.

The examiner observes and identifies segments of the subject’s behaviour and assigns these to predetermined observational categories. Categorized observations are subsequently combined to produce quantitative scores for analysis. Research-determined cutoffs identify the potential diagnosis of autism or related ASD, allowing a standardized assessment of autistic symptoms.2.4. Screening and Diagnosis Time 1There were 56 children aged 8�C17 years identified at screening with a suspicion of ASD from the population of 7,689 at Time 1 and 43 of these met DSM-IV PDD/ASD diagnostic criteria or, in the case of ��Asperger syndrome,�� they met criteria for this condition operationalised by Gillberg [38]. The parents of two of the 43 children did not wish for their child to participate in the in-depth assessment study but both these children had been worked up comprehensively and diagnosed with ASD by Faroese or Danish clinicians prior to the research study.

2.5. Screening and Diagnosis Time 2All 41 participating individuals with ASD at Time 1, now aged 15�C24 years, were contacted at Time 2 (2009) and 31 of these (76%) agreed to participate in the follow-up study. In addition, there were 30 individuals newly referred because of the suspicion of ASD during the 2009 screening, and 22 of these met diagnostic criteria for ASD. Two additional cases had received their clinical diagnosis elsewhere, but were confirmed by the Time 2 clinician (RB). This means that there were 55 cases available at Time 2 (31 + 22 + 2).

The reasons for refusal to participate in the study at Time 2 among the original group diagnosed at Time 1 included (as recorded by the DISCO interviewer) (a) parent’s denial of any problems related to Drug_discovery autism (n = 2); (b) autism individual’s own denial of any problems (n = 2); (c) parent blaming the health system for not offering enough help (n = 2); (d) parents’ refusal due to very low general functioning of the person with autism (n = 1); (e) involvement of genetic analysis in the study (n = 1); and (f) other ��unspecified reasons�� or ��no information available�� (n = 3).2.6.