Autistic people are more likely to experience symptoms linked to psychosis. Our new research brings together findings from over 60 studies to explore why this happens, and whether the tools we use to measure these conditions are fit for purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What We Did<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We reviewed 63 studies involving nearly 7 million people (N = 6,903,960). We examined whether the link between autism and psychosis holds up, and whether the way these conditions are measured affects the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What We Found<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Why It Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding this overlap is crucial, especially in clinical settings. Misdiagnosis can lead to the wrong treatment and lack of support. We suggest that some tools used to measure psychosis may not work well for autistic people. This could be because certain traits overlap between autism and psychosis, or because some questionnaire items don\u2019t clearly separate autistic from psychosis-like traits. For autistic individuals, who often interpret language very literally, this can be a problem when similar wording is used to describe very different traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a common screening questionnaire for psychosis asks people to agree or disagree with statements like \u201cSome people think that I am a very bizarre person\u201d or \u201cI am an odd, unusual person.\u201d Autistic behaviours such as stimming or other unique traits might be misinterpreted as \u201codd\u201d or \u201cbizarre,\u201d even though they are typical for autistic people. Other common items assessing negative symptoms of psychosis may assess more shared interpersonal experiences, such as \u201cI am not good at expressing my true feelings by the way I talk and look\u201d and \u201cMy \u2018nonverbal\u2019 communication (smiling and nodding during a conversation) is not very good\u201d and so exaggerate the association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s Next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We wanted to see if the type of measurement tool changed the strength of the relationship between autistic and psychosis-traits, but the data available wasn\u2019t able to answer this. While the evidence for a strong association between autistic and psychotic-like traits is clear, more research is needed to improve assessment tools and ensure autistic people get accurate diagnoses and the right support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n