Autistic Symptoms and Empathy in Adolescents With Disruptive Mood Dysregulation and Those With Bipolar Disorders

The aim of the present study is to compare autistic symptoms and empathy of adolescents aged 12-18 years with bipolar disorder (BPSD) and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) to healthy adolescents.

In this study, 21 adolescents diagnosed with BPSD, 21 adolescents diagnosed with DMDD and 21 healthy adolescents similar in age and gender were included. Autistic symptoms were evaluated using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), and empathy was evaluated with the KA-SI Empathic Tendency Scale for Children and Adolescents (KA-SI ETS).

Significant differences were detected among the groups in ADI-R and SCQ, and healthy adolescents received statistically significantly lower scores. Empathy skills of healthy adolescents were evaluated as better than those in the BPSD and DMDD groups.

In our study, it was shown that young people with a diagnosis of DMDD had more difficulties in empathy skills, and they had more autistic symptoms than young people with BPSD and healthy adolescents. Providing support in terms of these empathy skills and evaluation of autistic symptoms in the treatment of young people diagnosed with BPSD and DMDD may affect both the psychosocial functionality of the cases and the course of the disease.