[A clinic and a paraclinic study of Tunisian population of children with autism. About 63 cases].

Autistic disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder which starts before the age of 3. The clinic features of autism are variable; the autonomy degree, the speech quality, the mental retardation associated and specially the existence of an organic disease change its clinic expression. A good knowledge of the basic signs is important to put diagnosis. This work, propose to describe a clinic and a Para clinic profile of Tunisian population of children with autism. The study included 63 children referred to the child psychiatry department between January 1998 and September 2003 and diagnosed with autistic disorder according to DSMIV and ADI-R criteria. The population profile studied is drawn as following : The sex ratio was of 3/1, the average age was of 8 years+/-3 years. Parents were related in 39.3% of cases. On the clinical plan, 51.2% of children with autism studied did not have expressive speech. They presented a mental retardation associated in 60.8% of cases. Epilepsy was presented in 21 children out of 63. This profile links literature study except in 2 points: - The rate of relatives with autism (8.6%) is superior to the rate found in literature(3%). This result can be explained by the high rate of consanguinity in the Tunisian studied population (39.3%). - Importance of associated organic pathologies (mental retardation).