Reading Disability Spectrum: Early and Late Recognition, Subthreshold, and Full Comorbidity

Abstract

Several studies have reported high comorbidity for reading disability (RD) and psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the comorbidity of subthreshold and full psychiatric disorders with RD while comparing subgroups based on age of RD recognition (early vs. late). We analyzed data from 130 children with RD and 82 typically developing children aged 7 to 18 years. RD was assessed with the Dyslexia Differential Diagnosis Maastricht-Hungarian Standard Test. Psychiatric diagnoses were based on the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid. Chi-square tests were used for group comparisons of the prevalence of subthreshold and full disorders. A higher proportion of children in the RD group were assessed as having internalizing or externalizing disorders. When subthreshold and full diagnoses were considered together, the prevalence of internalizing but not externalizing pathology was higher in the RD group than the control group. The prevalence of internalizing pathology was similar in the early and late RD subgroups, but externalizing pathology was more common in the late RD subgroup. When subthreshold and full diagnoses were considered together, mood disorder and externalizing pathology were more prevalent in the late RD subgroup than the early RD subgroup. This study demonstrated that early recognition of RD may play a role in determining comorbid psychopathology and should therefore be an educational and clinical priority. Clinicians should routinely screen children with RD for comorbid disorders, including subthreshold pathology.

The prevalence of psychiatric comorbid disorders among children with specific learning disorders: a systematic review

“…The recruited studies found that psychiatric disorders are prevalent among children with SLD. This was obvious in 3 studies [2,20,21] which compared children with SLD to a control group of children with typical school performance. Table 2 shows that among the psychiatric comorbidity with SLD, ADHD came to the first position followed respectively by anxiety disorders and depression.…”

“…Moreover, by further analysis of the prevalence rate of the subtypes of the anxiety disorders among 2 of the recruited studies [19,21], it was found that the most prevalent anxiety subtype with SLD was the specific phobia (specifically school phobia) as in Altay and Görker [19], followed by a separation anxiety disorder in Törő et al [21], and the generalized anxiety disorder was the least prevalent. This indicates that anxiety disorder in those children either school phobia or separation anxiety was the primary disorder.…”

“…Five studies fulfilled all the inclusion criteria [2,8,[19][20][21] (Table 1). Four out of the recruited studies were case-control studies [2,8,20,21], while only one study by Altay and Görker [19] was a cross-sectional study.…”

“…Lastly, Törő et al [21] used the Dyslexia Differential Diagnosis Maastricht-Hungarian Standard Test computerized dyslexia battery "3DM-H" [34]. The "3DM-H" is the Hungarian standardized adaptation of the Dutch 3DM dyslexia battery developed by Blomert and Vaessen [35].…”

“…Törő et al [21] used the modified version of the Hungarian Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid (MINI Kid) [18] to assess psychopathology in children which is a short, comprehensive, structured diagnostic interview that assesses 25 child psychiatric disorders per the DSM-IV. This scale uses the terms full (FT) and subthreshold (ST) pictures that indicate whether the child had the full picture or some symptoms of every psychiatric disorder it includes.…”