School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford University, USA
Correspondence: Chris Oliver, Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: c.oliver{at}bham.ac.uk
None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.
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Cornelia de Lange syndrome is associated with abnormalities on chromosomes 5, 10 and X.
Aims
To delineate the behavioural phenotype of Cornelia de Lange syndrome with specific reference to autistic-spectrum disorder.
Method
A total of 54 individuals with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (mean age 13.88 years; s.d.=8.58) and 46 comparable individuals with intellectual disability (mean age 13.74 years; s.d.=7.99) were assessed on measures of autistic-spectrum disorder, and adaptive, compulsive and disordered behaviour.
Results
There was no difference between the groups in global behaviour disorder. Severe autism was significantly more prevalent in the syndrome group (32.1%) than the comparison group (7.1%). In addition, the syndrome group also evidenced significantly higher levels of compulsive behaviour.
Conclusions
These data suggest that autistic-spectrum disorder is part of the behavioural phenotype of Cornelia de Lange syndrome and that compulsive behaviours are evident. Future research should investigate this behavioural phenotype using contemporary diagnostic algorithms for autism with detailed examination of the phenomenology of compulsive behaviours.
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Autistic-like behaviours are reported12 and estimates of autistic-spectrum disorder vary from 53%6 to 89%.13 However, as few studies have employed matched comparison groups the interpretation of these figures is problematic. Reports of autistic-like behaviour in Cornelia de Lange syndrome note repetitive and ritualistic behaviours. Hyman et al14 reported high levels of compulsive-like behaviours with 87.5% showing at least one form. This high prevalence warrants further investigation by examining whether these behaviours are independent of autistic-like impairments.
In this study we examine communication, compulsive and autistic-like behaviour in Cornelia de Lange syndrome. We predict that these characteristics will be more prominent in people with this syndrome (syndrome group) than in a comparison group. We also investigate the relationship between compulsive and autistic-like behaviour. We employ psychometrically robust methods of assessment and a mixed-aetiology intellectual disability group matched on key characteristics (age, gender, intellectual ability and mobility) for comparison.
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To identify a comparison group, two methods were adopted. Teachers and key workers of participants with the syndrome identified up to 2 individuals who were similar to the index participant in terms of age, gender, mobility and ability (n=5). Second, schools and day centres already visited distributed 876 information packs to parents and carers. Altogether, 153 (17.5%) returned consent forms and questionnaires (including the Wessex Scale,15 see Measures). Individuals were matched to participants with Cornelia de Lange syndrome in terms of age (+2 years), gender, wheelchair use (never, sometimes or often) and self-help skills as determined by Wessex scores. A total of 46 comparison participants were identified.
Information on the Wessex self-help scale, mobility, age and gender are presented in Table 1. No specific diagnosis was made in 25 individuals in the comparison group; 21 had syndrome diagnoses including: Down syndrome (n=8); autism (n=3); cerebral palsy (n=2); congenital rubella (n=1); fragile-X syndrome (n=1); Ito syndrome (n=1); Landau–Kleffner syndrome (n=1); Miller–Dieker syndrome (n=1); Prader–Willi syndrome (n=1); Sotos syndrome (n=1); and intellectual disability subsequent to Reyes syndrome (n=1).
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View this table: [in a new window] | Table 1 Mean (s.d.) age, percentage of males, levels of ability and of mobility for both groups |
Overall, 3.7% of the syndrome group were taking antipsychotic medication, 11.1% were taking anti-epileptic medication and 42.6% other types of non-psychoactive medication. Of the comparison group, 10.9% of participants were on antipsychotic medication, 23.9% were taking anti-epileptic medication and 31.3% other forms of non-psychoactive medication.
Measures
Wessex Scale
The Wessex
Scale15 is an
informant questionnaire designed to assess social and physical abilities in
children and adults with intellectual disabilities. It has good interrater
reliability at subscale level for both children and
adults.15,16
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Interview
Edition)17 measure
ability in individuals from birth to 18 years 11 months and in
low-functioning adults. Three domains of adaptive behaviour were
used: Communication, with sub-domains Receptive, Expressive and Written; Daily
Living Skills; and Socialisation. Results were obtained as age-equivalent
scores. Interrater and test–retest reliability indices, construct,
content and criterion validity are
robust.17
Aberrant Behavior Checklist
The Aberrant Behavior
Checklist18 is a
measure of problem behaviour incorporating a 58-item checklist with five
factors based on observations of behaviour over the previous month, including:
irritability, agitation and crying; lethargy and social withdrawal;
stereotypic behaviour; inappropriate speech; and hyperactivity and
non-adherence. The checklist is completed by caregivers, who rate each
behaviour from 0 (not at all a problem) to 4 (problem is severe in degree).
Aman & Singh18
report robust interrater and test–retest reliability.
Compulsive Behavior Checklist
The Compulsive Behavior
Checklist19 is a
questionnaire measure comprising 25 items grouped into five categories:
Ordering, Completeness, Cleaning, Checking and Grooming. The mean interrater
reliability agreement across raters is
84.3%.20
Childhood Autism Rating Scale
The Childhood Autism Rating
Scale21 is an
observational rating scale incorporating 15 items developed to identify
individuals with autism. Informants rate each behaviour from 1 (no evidence of
autistic-type behaviour) to 4 (severe autistic-type behaviour). Aggregate
scores of 15–29.5 indicate no autism, 30–36.5 mild to moderate
autism and scores of over 37, severe autism. Scores are standardised based on
normative data collected from 1500 individuals with autism. Interrater and
test–retest reliability, criterion validity and internal consistency are
reported to be
good.21
Procedure
Questionnaire and interview measures were completed by the
participants daytime carer. Observers visited each participant and
collected videotaped observations of the participant for about 4 h. Following
data collection, the videotapes were used to rate relevant items on the
Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Ethical review of all aspects of the study was
obtained.
Data analysis
For the majority of analyses chi-squared or t-tests were used to
compare groups. For analyses for which no prediction was made and multiple
comparisons were undertaken (analyses of sub-scales for the Aberrant Behavior
Checklist and the Compulsive Behavior Checklist), Bonferroni corrections were
applied (P50.01).
When examining the behavioural phenotype across behaviours to control for covariance, a regression analysis was conducted to predict group membership. The following behavioural variables were force entered into a binary logistic regression equation: total number of compulsions as measured by the Compulsive Behavior Checklist, the total Childhood Autism Rating Scale score, total score on each factor of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist and Expressive Communication sub-domain age-equivalent scores. Post hoc tests (variance inflation factor) were applied to the data to test for multicollinearity.
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2(1)=0.14, P=0.71), ability
(
2(1)=0.67, P=0.72) and mobility
(
2(1)=0.33, P=0.85). Analysis of the Vineland
Adaptive Behavior Scale data showed no difference between groups for
mental-age-equivalent scores (syndrome group: mean=27.43 months (s.d.=20.67);
comparison group: mean=27.80 months (s.d.=22.79); t(97)=0.09,
P=0.93). The percentage of participants with Cornelia de Lange
syndrome with given degrees of intellectual disability were: profound 50.00%,
severe 24.07%, moderate 14.81% and mild 11.11%. Equivalent data for the
comparison group were 45.65%, 30.43%, 15.22% and 8.70% respectively. These
proportions did not differ significantly (
2(1)=0.62,
P=0.89). In combination, these analyses showed that the groups were
comparable. To examine the potential discrepancy between receptive and expressive language abilities, mean age-equivalent scores for the Communication sub-domains of Receptive, Expressive and Written were compared across groups (Fig. 1). A mixed two-way ANOVA revealed an interaction effect (F(2,196)=3.39, P<0.05). Examination of the data in Fig. 1 showed that the syndrome group performed relatively more poorly on the Expressive communication domain compared with other domains than the comparison group.
![]() View larger version (11K): [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide] |
Fig. 1 Mean-age equivalent scores (in months) (±1 s.e.) for Communication
sub-domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales for both groups.
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Table 2 shows the mean
scores for the syndrome and comparison groups on the sub-scales of the
Aberrant Behavior Checklist and the Compulsive Behavior Checklist. For the
Aberrant Behavior Checklist there were no significant differences between the
groups on sub-domains or total score (syndrome group: mean=40.77 (s.d.=34.15);
comparison group: mean=32.98 (s.d.=30.87); t(95)=1.71,
P=0.24). On the sub-domains of the Compulsive Behavior Checklist, the
syndrome group scored significantly higher on the Cleaning and Checking
sub-scales (P=0.002 and P=0.006 respectively) with the
difference on the Grooming sub-scale approaching significance
(P=0.049). The syndrome group showed a significantly higher number of
compulsive behaviours than the comparison group (mean=4.12 (s.d.=3.99) and
mean=2.67 (s.d.=3.16) respectively; t(95)=2.68, P=0.009).
Finally, 86.5% of participants with Cornelia de Lange syndrome and 57.8% of
participants in the comparison group displayed one or more forms of compulsive
behaviour (
2(1)=10.17, P<0.01).
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View this table: [in a new window] | Table 2 Mean (s.d.) for the Aberrant Behavior Checklist and the Compulsive Behavior Checklist sub-scale scores for the both groups |
Table 3 displays the percentage of participants in each category of autism. A significantly greater proportion of individuals in the syndrome group (32.1%) scored in the severe autism category compared with the comparison group (7.1%).
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View this table: [in a new window] | Table 3 Percentage of participants in each category of autism (as defined by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale) broken down by group |
Predicting group membership
A binary logistic regression was conducted to determine the behavioural
characteristics that predicted group membership, while controlling for other
behaviours. The regression equation was conducted with the following
variables: total number of compulsions as measured by the Compulsive Behavior
Checklist, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale score, total score on each factor
of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, and Expressive Communication
age-equivalent scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. The
regression model correctly classified 64% of cases. Total score on the
Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Wald=8.34, d.f.(1), P<0.01,
OR=1.15) and total number of compulsions (Wald=4.44, d.f.(1),
P<0.05, OR=1.23) significantly predicted group membership when all
other variables were controlled for. Post hoc tests revealed that the
data did not show multicollinearity.
To examine compulsive behaviours in the syndrome and comparison groups in more detail, a binary logistic regression was also carried out with the five Compulsive Behavior Checklist categories as independent variables. The regression model correctly classified 66% of cases, with the number of cleaning compulsions being the only significant variable predicting group membership (Wald=7.74, d.f.(1), P<0.01, OR=2.36). Post hoc tests revealed that the data did not show multicollinearity.
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View this table: [in a new window] | Table 4 Percentage of participants with Cornelia de Lange syndrome by category of intellectual disability across studies |
Autistic-spectrum disorder and compulsive behaviour
Previous studies have suggested that individuals with Cornelia de Lange
syndrome may have an increased likelihood of showing autistic-type
behaviour.6,23
Our study supports this assertion as individuals with the syndrome were
significantly more likely to be categorised as severely autistic
than individuals in the comparison group. Furthermore, results of a regression
analysis to examine the contribution of characteristics to the prediction of
group membership indicated that total score on the Childhood Autism Rating
Scale was a significant predictor. Thus, variables such as degree of
intellectual disability that are known to influence prevalence of
autism24 have been
controlled for both in this analysis and in the experimental design. Although
this finding is important it requires replication using psychometrically
robust measures of autism combined with developmental history and assessments
that inform established diagnostic algorithms. Comparisons of phenomenology of
autism not associated with syndromes and in high-risk syndromes, such as
fragile-X and tuberous sclerosis, are also warranted.
It is notable that no differences were found between the groups on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist at the full-scale or sub-scale level. Previous research has indicated that individuals with Cornelia de Lange syndrome may have an increased likelihood of showing hyperactive and stereotyped behaviour.6 However, our study demonstrates that when employing a matched comparison group no differences are found. The finding of no difference in global behaviour disorder between the two groups also indicates the need for the use of specific measures of behaviour in this type of research given other identified differences.
This study provides further evidence of a high prevalence of compulsive behaviour in Cornelia de Lange syndrome. Consistent with the report of Hyman et al,14 over 85% of participants in the syndrome group showed compulsive behaviour, significantly more than in the comparison group. Analyses also indicated that the syndrome group displayed more compulsions than the comparison group and, critically, the regression analysis demonstrated that the number of compulsions was a reliable predictor of Cornelia de Lange syndrome when autism was controlled for. Although this finding is robust there is need for caution regarding significance. It is not clear that the Compulsive Behavior Checklist is assessing compulsive behaviour as defined by DSM–IV25, for example, and some stereotyped behaviours might be included in the assessment. Further research should clarify the phenomenology of the compulsive behaviours and undertake detailed comparisons with other groups.
Future research
Our findings are important for a number of reasons. First, differences
between the groups were found for an expressive communication deficit,
compulsive behaviours and autism, and these characteristics appear to be
phenotypic of Cornelia de Lange syndrome. Second, the results indicate that
compulsive behaviours might be more pronounced in this syndrome than would be
predicted from the presence of other autistic impairments and this
dissociation alludes to the potential for an additional pathway to aspects of
the behavioural phenotype. Future research should focus on further delineation
of the phenomenology of the phenotypic characteristics noted in this study and
their relationship with the genetic subtypes of Cornelia de Lange syndrome
that are now being
described.13
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