Autism: Comorbidities and Treatment Patterns in the Real World, a Retrospective Cohort Study Among Children, Adolescents and Adults Newly Diagnosed with Autism
- Resource Type
- Authors
- M. Soledad Cepeda; Azza Shoaib; Gayle Murray; Rachel Ochs-Ross
- Source
- Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 52(10)
- Subject
- Adult
Pediatrics
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Psychological intervention
Comorbidity
Cohort Studies
Pharmacotherapy
mental disorders
Developmental and Educational Psychology
medicine
Humans
Autistic Disorder
Child
Retrospective Studies
Public health
Retrospective cohort study
medicine.disease
United States
Mood
Autism spectrum disorder
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity
Autism
Psychology
Medicaid
- Language
- ISSN
- 1573-3432
We used real world data to summarize comorbidities and interventions among patients newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data were derived from two claims-based US healthcare databases; Medicaid and Optum to construct a retrospective cohort of 36,000 patients. Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder (ADHD) was the most common co-morbidity (Medicaid: 50.09%; Optum: 44.16%), followed by mood disorder (Medicaid: 16.56% and Optum: 17.47%). Most patients received at least one type of treatment. Behavioral therapy was common (74.64% in Medicaid and 71.97% in Optum). More than half the cohorts received at least 1 pharmacotherapy. However, pharmacotherapies were diverse. Combination therapy and therapy switching was common. Understanding the clinical diversity and complexity of patients with ASD is an important first step in understanding unmet therapeutic needs.