Symptom scores and medication treatment patterns in children with ADHD versus autism.

•Psychotropic use was analyzed in 1407 children with autism and 1036 with ADHD.•Symptom scores for medicated children were far higher than for unmedicated children.•Percent prescribed a psychotropic did not differ between ADHD-Combined and autism.•Children with ADHD-Inattentive were least impaired and least likely to be medicated.•Medication classes prescribed differed between ADHD and autism.