Scholarly Saturday- Aspergers and Psychiatric disorders.
In a recent post I described my struggle with providing clinical case management services for youth diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and a mood disorder as well. My small sample size of 3 autism spectrum clients are also diagnosed with a significant mood disorder. The work of Mukaddes, Herg U Ner, and Tanidir (2010) elaborates on this including a sample size of 30. They noted significant comorbidity with both ADHD and Mood Disorders. Researchers also caution that this to is a small sample size but these needs to be examined carefully.
The discussion demonstrates the need for a good assessment and rule out of various factors. A good resource for assessment and treatment would be Clinical Assessment and Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders (Practical Resources for the Mental Health Professional) . This offers a detailed assessment and describes treatment implications for psychiatric disorders. This should help treatment teams problem solve this often challenging presentation.
