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.