What Is Distinctive About Autism Arising Following Severe Institutional Deprivation? A Direct Comparison With a Community Sample of Early Diagnosed Autistic People.
Maria Rodriguez-Perez, Susie Chandler, Mark Kennedy and 3 others
PMID 40135545WHAT IT FOUND
People with autism arising from severe early deprivation show fewer social reciprocity issues but more odd language use than those with community autism.
Their repetitive behaviours and co-occurring emotional problems match community autism levels. Clinicians should treat deprivation-related autism as standard autism.
Key findings
01The deprivation-related autism group had significantly higher scores for using odd phrases, socially inappropriate questions, and made-up words compared to non-deprived controls, a pattern that persisted into adulthood.
02When compared directly to community autistic individuals, the deprivation group showed much narrower social reciprocity difficulties at age 11, but no significant differences in repetitive and stereotyped behaviours or total autism scores by age 15.
03Levels of inattention, overactivity, emotional problems, and conduct problems were similar between the deprivation-related autism group and the community autism group, suggesting these co-occurring issues require the same clinical attention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used the 'Current' version of the SCQ, which looks at the past 3 months, potentially missing lifetime symptoms. The SCQ uses binary scoring (yes/no), so the study cannot assess the severity of symptoms or qualitative differences in how symptoms are expressed. The QA group was predominantly female (61.5%), while the community autism group was predominantly male, although the authors state no sex differences were found in symptom expression. IQ data was missing for most of the community autism group, requiring the use of adaptive functioning scores as a proxy in some analyses.
Declared interests
Some authors have received speaker fees, consultancy fees, or research support from pharmaceutical companies (Medice, Takeda, F. Hoffmann-La Roche) and publishers. Funding was provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and other UK-based bodies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of social reciprocity deficits in the deprivation group as a sign of milder autism. The study found that repetitive behaviours and co-occurring emotional problems were just as prominent as in community autism, and the authors recommend dropping the 'quasi' prefix to ensure access to appropriate services.