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Pervasive Developmental Disorder NOS

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Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology

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Synonyms

Atypical autism; Autism spectrum disorder

Short Description/Definition

Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is the subthreshold disorder in the PDD class of conditions in the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000). The individual with PDD-NOS does not meet the criteria for autistic disorder or other specifically defined PDDs but does exhibit problems in social interaction and either communication anomalies or unusual behavior suggestive of a diagnosis in this category. In contrast, ICD-10 (World Health Organization 1994) terms the condition atypical autism and allows for specification of the ways in which the case is subthreshold, e.g., relative to criterion threshold or age of onset. The category has now been eliminated from DSM-5.

Categorization

Although first recognized officially in DSM-III (1980), in many respects this concept has its roots in the much earlier observations of individuals like Rank (1949) and Asperger (1944), who...

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References and Readings

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child Study Center, Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

Authors
  1. Fred R. Volkmar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fred R. Volkmar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Jeffrey S. Kreutzer

  2. Kessler Foundation, Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ, USA

    John DeLuca

  3. Independent Practice, Wynnewood, PA, USA

    Bruce Caplan

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Volkmar, F.R. (2018). Pervasive Developmental Disorder NOS. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1585

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