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Autistic Traits Among Adolescents and Young Adults Under Assessment for Psychiatric Conditions: An Experimental Analysis of Prevalence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2023

Sanem İnci ,
Veronica Nisticò ,
Irene Folatti ,
Giulia Santangelo ,
Claudio Sanguineti ,
Raffaella Faggioli ,
Angelo Bertani ,
Orsola Gambini  and
Benedetta Demartini
Sanem İnci
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
Veronica Nisticò*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy “Aldo Ravelli” Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
Irene Folatti
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
Giulia Santangelo
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
Claudio Sanguineti
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
Raffaella Faggioli
Affiliation:
Unità di Psichiatria 52, Presidio San Paolo, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milano, Italy
Angelo Bertani
Affiliation:
Centro Giovani “Ettore Ponti”, Dipartimento Salute Mentale e Dipendenze, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milano, Italy
Orsola Gambini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy “Aldo Ravelli” Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Unità di Psichiatria 52, Presidio San Paolo, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milano, Italy
Benedetta Demartini
Affiliation:
“Aldo Ravelli” Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Unità di Psichiatria 52, Presidio San Paolo, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milano, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

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Aims

Autism spectrum disorders have recently encountered a change in how they are perceived, since what used to be a narrowly defined rare disorder of childhood is now recognized as a fairly common heterogeneous disorder, which may receive a first-diagnosis during adolescence and adulthood, yet, a common scenario within this age group is that either the diagnosis is missed or misdiagnosed with other psychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, relatively little has been published about the prevalence of autistic traits in adolescent and young adults, and specifically in those investigated for psychiatric conditions.In the present study, we explore the prevalence of autistic traits among 170 adolescents and young adults who were referred to the outpatient psychiatry clinic “Centro Giovani Ponti” in Milan, Italy between September 2021 and March 2022.

Methods

Socio-demographic information was collected and all participants completed the following questionnaires; (1) The Autism Quotient (AQ), (2) The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R), (3) The Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ) and (4) The Empathy Quotient (EQ).

Results

Out of 170 participants, a striking 103 (60.6%) of the subjects scored above the cut-off in RAADS-R, and 31 (18.2%) of the subjects scored above the cut-off in AQ. Furthermore, 99 (58.2%) participants were in the medium range and 47 (27.6%) were in the low empathy category according to EQ results. A significant sensory sensitivity was measured with an SPQ total score of 55.25 (SD = 17.76). Finally, gender difference was of significance in the RAADS-R, EQ and SPQ, but not in the AQ. In the RAADS-R, non-binary subjects (128.60) scored higher than females (78.68). Whereas, in the SPQ female (57.39) participants scored higher than non-binary subjects (40.30). Furthermore, females scored significantly higher compared to males in the EQ total score with values of 42.56 and 35.89, respectively.

Conclusion

To conclude, we report that a significant proportion of adolescents and young adults seeking psychiatric care have unrecognized autistic traits and that an impact of gender is observed. This so called ‘lost generation’ is attributed to be created by the complex phenotypic presentations, changes in diagnostic criteria and associated diagnostic difficulties. It is of utmost importance to clarify the prevalence of autistic traits within this age range and to increase awareness among clinicians, since establishing the true diagnosis, which is commonly complicated by the high rates of psychiatric comorbidity or overlapping mental health symptoms, will reduce the burden on patients, their families, clinicians, and the society.

Type
Research
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S54
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Footnotes

Note: This abstract was initially published without the inclusion of most of the authors. This has now been rectified and a corrigendum published at https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2024.40

Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.

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