Autism diagnosis in adulthood tied to increased burden of psychiatric conditions

BY CHARLES Q. CHOI 

People diagnosed with autism in adulthood are nearly three times as likely as their childhood-diagnosed counterparts to report having psychiatric conditions, a new study finds.

“Experiences of childhood- versus adulthood-diagnosed people are likely to be quite different,” says lead investigator Vanessa Bal, Karmazin and Lillard Chair in Adult Autism at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Generalizing findings from one group to the other “is going to have serious implications for research.” read more