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Evidence of Validity of the Autism Mental Status Examination (AMSE) in a Brazilian Sample

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Abstract

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Autism Mental Status Examination (AMSE) in a Brazilian sample of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A sample of 260 children and adolescents, comprising 56 (21.5%) females and 204 (78.5%) males, was assessed. The participants were submitted to both the childhood autism rating scale (CARS-BR) and the AMSE. The CARS-BR was used to estimate ASD severity and the cutoff point on the AMSE. Spearman’s correlation test was employed to determine the correlation between the AMSE and CARS-BR scales. The cutoff values were calculated using the ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve, identifying the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). The homogeneity of the items of the AMSE was determined using Cronbach´s alpha. The AMSE exhibited good internal consistency (0.74), sensitivity (0.91) and specificity (0.98); and high correlation with the CARS-BR (ρ = 0.91, p < 0.01). Preliminary results showed that the AMSE is a tool with good psychometric properties for ASD screening.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all participants and their parents, to the participating centers HC-Unicamp, Association for the Autism Development of Campinas (ADACAMP) and from the Care Center for Childhood Behavior and Learning and to the independent examiners for their collaboration. This study was supported by the Coordination of Superior Level Personel Improvement (CAPES) No. 01- P- 3492/2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, State University of Campinas (Unicamp), 126. Tessália Vieira de Camargo, Campinas, SP, 13083-887, Brazil

    Marlene Pereira Galdino, Luiz Fernando Longuim Pegoraro, Laura Olalla Saad & Eloisa Helena Rubello Valler Celeri

  2. Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    David Grodberg

Authors
  1. Marlene Pereira Galdino
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  2. Luiz Fernando Longuim Pegoraro
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  3. Laura Olalla Saad
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  4. David Grodberg
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  5. Eloisa Helena Rubello Valler Celeri
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Contributions

MPG contributed to the design and implementation of the research, evaluation of the patients, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. LFLP contributed to the interpretation of the results and critical revision. LOS, DG contributed in critical revision. EHRVC helped supervise the project and critical review. All authors discussed the results and provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marlene Pereira Galdino.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Galdino, M.P., Pegoraro, L.F.L., Saad, L.O. et al. Evidence of Validity of the Autism Mental Status Examination (AMSE) in a Brazilian Sample. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 2320–2325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3530-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3530-0

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