{
  "abstract": "Autism spectrum disorder is rising globally. Access to diagnostic and interventional services is often limited. Psychotropics and polypharmacy are often utilized to manage comorbidities. There remains a dearth of research on autism in low- and middle-income countries in the Caribbean.Objectives included to determine the number of patients with autism, sex, age ranges, parish of residence, diagnoses, medications and services being utilized at the only public specialist developmental clinic in Jamaica. A retrospective docket review of new patients between 2019-2022 was done. Descriptive analyses were done using STATA; level of significance was a p-value of 0.05. Ethical approval was obtained from the Mona Campus Research Ethics Committee. There were 402 children who received a diagnosis of ASD during the study period; males were represented 3.5x more than females. Eighty percent (80%) of children resided within a 50 km radius of the diagnostic facility. The median age of presentation and diagnosis of ASD was 47.9 months IQR (37.5–67.6). Males presented significantly later than females (p=0.006). The most used interventional service was general developmental services (45%). Behavioural and speech and language services were used by 2% and 5% of participants respectively. Medication was prescribed in 11% with 9 % of prescriptions being for psychotropics. Diagnostic services must be expanded beyond the current reach of 50 km. Reasons for gender disparity at diagnostic age needs to be elucidated. Equitable access to high quality interventional services needs to be developed within the clinic through collaborative efforts with private, public and governmental organizations.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica"
      ],
      "name": "Andrea Garbutt"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica"
      ],
      "name": "Oluwayomi Olugbuyi"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica"
      ],
      "name": "Helen Trotman-Edwards"
    }
  ],
  "title": "124 Autism management at a specialist clinic in Jamaica: identifying gaps to improve care",
  "uid": "2eb892b2-7bd7-5c57-a7a5-cd44a04fab6c"
}