Autism and Its Lookalikes: A Case Report of a Child Whose Autism Diagnosis No Longer Fit Years Later

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) involve deficits in social communication and interactions as well as restricted, repetitive behaviors that can be reliably diagnosed in children as young as 14 months old, mostly by 36 months old, although signs of ASD may be present before then. Case Presentation: We present a case of a 5-year-old male who was diagnosed with ASD at 48 months and was found to no longer meet criteria for ASD upon reevaluation at 62 months after receiving medication treatment for his underlying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and severe mood dysregulation. Conclusions: In this report, we discussed the need to consider a broad differential of diagnoses that may resemble ASD and the need to reevaluate a child for ASD, especially if their ASD symptoms were mild on initial evaluation.