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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2005) 187: 262-267
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Psychiatric telephone interview with parents for screening of childhood autism – tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other comorbidities (A–TAC)

Preliminary reliability and validity

Sara Lina Hansson, MD, Annika Svanström Röjvall, MD, Maria Rastam, MD, PhD and Carina Gillberg, MD, PhD

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Göteborg University, Sweden

Christopher Gillberg, MD, PhD

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Göteborg University, Sweden and St George’s Hospital Medical School London, UK

Henrik Anckarsäter, MD, PhD

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Göteborg University, Sweden

Correspondence: Henrik Anckarsäter, Forensic Psychiatric Clinic, University Hospital of Malmö, Sege Park, 8A, S-205 02 Malmö, Sweden. Tel: +46 40 334031; fax: +46 40 334127; e-mail: henrik.anckarsater{at}skane.se

Declaration of interest None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background Reliable, valid and easily administered screening instruments would greatly facilitate large-scale neuropsychiatric research.

Aims To test a parent telephone interview focused on autism – tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other comorbidities (A–TAC).

Method Parents of 84 children in contact with a child neuropsychiatric clinic and 27 control children were interviewed. Validity and interrater and test – retest reliability were assessed.

Results Interrater and test – retest reliability were very good. Areas under receiver operating characteristics curves between interview scores and clinical diagnoses were around 0.90 for ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders, and above 0.70 for tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder. Using optimal cut-off scores for autistic spectrum disorder and ADHD, good to excellent kappa levels for interviews and clinical diagnoses were noted.

Conclusions The A–TAC appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for identifying autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD, tics, learning disorders and developmental coordination disorder.


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