Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials for diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in adults. A blinded study

- Psychiatric patients were blindly assessed with the SensoDetect BERA Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR).
- We investigated if ABR is helpful in the diagnostic procedure of adults with schizophrenia, ADHD and autism.
- We found the ABR method unhelpful and unreliable.

The aim of the present study was to examine the clinical utility of complex auditory brainstem response (c-ABR) and investigate if c-ABR is helpful in the diagnostic procedure. Thirty-one adult psychiatric patients, thoroughly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n=16), ADHD (n=8), or schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) (n=7) and 15 healthy controls (HC), were blindly assessed with SensoDetect BERA. This c-ABR correctly identified psychiatric diagnoses in 4 patients (13%) and provided partially correct diagnoses in 11 more patients. Of the 15 HC, 6 were misclassified as psychiatric patients. The Cohen´s kappa coefficient (κ) was substantial for HC (κ=0.67), fair for SSD (κ=0.37), slight for ADHD (κ=0.09) and without agreement in ASD (κ=−0.03). In conclusion, we found the c-ABR method unhelpful and unreliable as a tool in clinical diagnostics.