Use of a Direct Observational Measure in a Trial of Risperidone and Parent Training in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders

• Published in: Journal of developmental and physical disabilities 2013-06, Vol.25 (3), p.355-371
• Main Authors: Handen, Benjamin L., Johnson, Cynthia R., Butter, Eric M., Lecavalier, Luc, Scahill, Lawrence, Aman, Michael G., McDougle, Christopher J., Arnold, L. Eugene, Swiezy, Naomi B., Sukhodolsky, Denis G., Mulick, James A., White, Susan W., Bearss, Karen, Hollway, Jill A., Stigler, Kimberly A., Dziura, James, Yu, Sunkyung, Sacco, Kelley, Vitiello, Benedetto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis of covariance; Antipsychotics; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Autistic children; Behavior problems; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Behaviour disordered children; Child and School Psychology; Compliance; Developmental disorders; Inappropriateness; Original Article; Outcome Measures; Outcomes of Treatment; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parenthood education; Parents & parenting; Pediatrics; Pervasive developmental disorders; Positive reinforcement; Psychology; Public Health; Reinforcement; Risperidone; Statistical Analysis
• ISSN: 1056-263X; 1573-3580
• DOI: 10.1007/s10882-012-9316-y

A Structured Observational Analog Procedure (SOAP), an analogue measure of parent-child interactions, was used to assess treatment outcome in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and serious behavior problems. It served as a secondary outcome measure in a 24-week, randomized trial of risperidone (MED; N  = 49) versus risperidone plus parent training (COMB; n  = 75) (ages 4–13 years). At 24-weeks, there was 28 % reduction in child inappropriate behavior during a Demand Condition ( p  = .0002) and 12 % increase in compliance to parental requests ( p  = .004) for the two treatment conditions combined. Parents displayed 64 % greater use of positive reinforcement ( p  = .001) and fewer repeated requests for compliance ( p