Stereotypy in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Relationship and Diagnostic Fidelity

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), are characterized by severe and debilitating symptoms including stereotypic behaviors. Stereotypies constitute core features of ASD and markedly impede attempts to remediate the disorder. Little previous research has examined characteristics of stereotypies in adults with ASD, or differentiated these behaviors as they present in ASD, from persons with intellectual disability (ID) only. In the present study 336 adults, those with ASD and ID versus ID alone were evaluated with respect to the nature and extent of their stereotypied behavior. A comparison of autistic to PDD-NOS participants was also conducted to offer a more fine-grained analysis specific to the ASD population. The nature and implications of these data for differential diagnosis in adults with ASD are discussed.