Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Indian Scene

Pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) are characterized by slow, limited andatypical developmental processes with onset in the early years of life. The condition leadson to disabilities in virtually all the psychological and behavioral sectors with prominentdisturbances in social, communicative and cognitive spheres. PDDs include theprototypic Childhood autism, Rett’s syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder(CDD), Asperger’s syndrome and Atypical autism. Except for one additional category(hyper kinetic stereotyped movement disorder in ICD-10), the disorders included in ICD10 (World Health Organization, 1992) and DSM IV (American Psychiatric Association,1994) are identical.