Prevalence of Medical Comorbidities in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Excerpt

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties in socioemotional reciprocity and communication.¹ Impairments in communication represent an important obstacle when clinicians are confronted with the challenge of diagnosing comorbidities in ASD. In fact, nonverbal or minimally verbal individuals with ASD could have difficulties in communicating symptoms, and problem behaviors, such as self-injury or aggression, could be sometimes the only manifestation of an underlying medical problem. Additionally, due to sensory impairment or refusal to initiate requested tasks, noncompliance to medical examination (i.e., palpation or auscultation) or different types of medical procedure (i.e., MRI, venipuncture) is extremely common.² These difficulties may result in important unmet medical needs in this population. Only one study³ has actually investigated the presence of medical comorbidities in adult with ASD, while the others have relied on patient/caregiver survey or medical charts/registers. The aim of the present study is to evaluate medical comorbidities in a sample of adults with ASD. …