Do the Traits of Autism-Spectrum Overlap with Those of Schizophrenia or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the General Population?

Elsevier. 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32887-4800. Tel: 877-839-7126; Tel: 407-345-4020; Fax: 407-363-1354; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.elsevier.com

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9

Anxiety Disorders; Schizophrenia; Autism; Young Adults; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Multiple Regression Analysis; Correlation; Scores

10.1016/j.rasd.2011.09.008

1750-9467

Social and communicative deficits, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors are diagnostic features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The present study examined the relationship between autistic characteristics and schizophrenia-spectrum traits as well as between autistic characteristics and obsessive-compulsive traits in typically developed young adults. The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was given separately to two large samples. In addition, one sample (N=662) was given the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) to assess schizophrenia-spectrum traits, whereas the other sample (N=347) was given the Padua Inventory (PI) to assess obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) traits. The results revealed a moderate correlation between the AQ and the SPQ total scores; however, multiple regression analyses showed that the "Cognitive-Perceptual" factor did not predict the autism-spectrum degree, although autistic characteristics and schizophrenia-spectrum traits had common social-emotional difficulties. Similarly, there was a moderate correlation between the AQ and PI total scores, which suggests that they had common problems in cognitive aspects; however, autism-spectrum and OCD traits differed with regard to other behavioral characteristics including repetitive or impulsive behaviors. Therefore, there was not a large overlap of the autism-spectrum and either the schizophrenia- or obsessive-compulsive spectrums, although certain traits were correlated with each other. (Contains 4 tables.)

As Provided

2012

EJ966636