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Mortality and Causes of Death in Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Torben Isager

Glostrup Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark

Svend E. Mouridsen

Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

Bente Rich

Fjorden Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark

In the present study, we rediagnosed and followed a clinical sample of 341 children with related pervasive developmental disorders for an average of 24 years (current mean age of 31 years; range 14-48 years). Twelve patients had died. For the whole group crude mortality was 3.5 percent (95 percent Confidence Interval 1.8-6.1 percent). The standardized mortality ratio was 1.9 (95 percent Confidence Interval 1.0-3.4). For the diagnostic subgroups crude mortality was: infantile autism 3.4 percent, autistic-like conditions 3.4 percent, borderline childhood psychosis 2.5 percent and disintegrative psychosis 15.4 percent. Mortality was related to intelligence in a U-shaped fashion, with both severe retardation and normal intelligence being associated with a relatively high risk of death. The distribution between natural causes and unnatural causes of death (accidents, suicide) resembled the pattern seen in a background population of adolescents and younger adults. Five of the 12 deaths were related to epilepsy.

Key Words: intelligence • mortality • pervasive developmental disorders

Autism, Vol. 3, No. 1, 7-16 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361399003001002
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