The value of intellectual structural imbalance in the differentiation of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

作者：Danyang Zhang, Qiu-Hong Wei, Brian Hu, Dan Ai, Yu Zhang, Yuan Ding, Ting Yang, Jie Chen, Li Chen, Wu Yuan, Hongyu Chen, Xue-Li Xiang, Qiu-Hong Mou, Tingyu Li · 发表于：Frontiers in Psychiatry · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1610278 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder、Autism Spectrum Disorder Research、Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background The study delves into the intricate task of differentiating intellectual structures among children diagnosed with the high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HF-ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or comorbidity (ASD+ADHD), aiming to assist in their clinical differentiation, with the goal of refining clinical diagnoses and developing targeted therapeutic interventions. Methods The study included 200 outpatients aged 6.5–13.0 years (total Intelligence Quotient (IQ) 70–130) at the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, and categorized into HF-ASD (n=91), ADHD (n=47), and comorbidity ASD+ADHD (n=62) groups. We utilized the Chinese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (C-WISC) as the primary assessment tool, supplemented by additional diagnostic measures. Besides, we used SPSS 25.0 to assess the subtest scores and differences. Results The comorbidity group had lower total IQ than the other two groups ( p<0.001 ). The verbal IQ(VIQ) were lower than the performance IQ(PIQ) in HF-ASD ( p=0.017 ) and comorbidity ( p=0.007 ) groups. They also scored higher on perceptual organization subtests particularly in Block Design and Object Assembly than the ADHD group. The ADHD group showed higher VIQ than PIQ ( p=0.020 ). The ADHD group’s scores for working memory subtests were lower than in the HF-ASD group. The respective peak scores for the HF-ASD and comorbidity groups were in Block Design (45%,43%) and Object Assembly (30%,37%) an...