VIII. Preliminary Literature Review

The work of Martin, Scahill, Klin and Volkmar (1999) entitled: "Higher-Functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Rates and Patterns of Psychotropic Drugs Use" reports a study in which the frequency, characteristics and associated target symptoms of psychotropic drug use among individuals with developmental disorders and specifically those with "higher functioning pervasive developmental disorders. (HFPDDs) in a total of 109 children, adolescents and adults results show that 55% of these were taking psychotropic drugs and 29.3% were taking two or more of these medications simultaneously. Conclusions of the study report as follows: "Psychotropic medication use appears to be common among subjects with HFPDDs, yet not generally based on the results of empirical research. Clinical heterogeneity among treated subjects suggests that psychiatric comorbidity may be overlooked in this population." (Martin, Scahill, Klin and Volkmar, 1999) the work of Reynolds and Dombeck (2006) relates that individuals with autism spectrum disorders are...
[ View Full Essay]