自闭症特征在解释自闭症成人的心理化表现方面比述情障碍特征更为重要，但在被拒绝自闭症诊断的成人中并非如此。
Autism traits outweigh alexithymia traits in the explanation of mentalising performance in adults with autism but not in adults with rejected autism diagnosis.
机构信息
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich, Nussbaumstr. 7, 80336, Munich, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
出版信息
Mol Autism. 2022 Jul 8;13(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s13229-022-00510-9.
BACKGROUND
Pronounced alexithymia traits have been found in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and recent research has been carving out the impact alexithymia traits might have on mentalising deficits associated with ASD.
METHOD
In this cross-sectional study, a large representative referral population for diagnostic examination for possible ASD (n = 400) was screened for clinical alexithymia with a German version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RME). In contrast to previous attempts to carve out the impact of alexithymia traits on mentalising deficits though, we employed dominance analysis to account for the correlation between predictors. The relative relationship between alexithymia traits and autism traits with RME performance was investigated in the group of individuals with confirmed ASD diagnosis (N = 281) and compared to the clinical referral sample in which ASD was ruled out (N = 119).
RESULTS
Dominance analysis revealed autism traits to be the strongest predictor for reduced mentalising skills in the ASD sample, whereas alexithymia contributed significantly less. In the sample of individuals with ruled out diagnosis, autism traits were the strongest predictor, but alexithymia traits were in sum equally associated to mentalising, with the External-Oriented Thinking subscale as an important predictor of this association.
LIMITATIONS
It needs to be considered that the cross-sectional study design does not allow for causal inference. Furthermore, mentalising is a highly facetted capacity and measurements need to reduce this complexity into simple quantities which limits the generalizability of results.
DISCUSSION
While alexithymia traits should be considered for their mental health importance, they do not dominate the explanation of reduced mentalising skills in individuals with ASD, but they might do to a larger degree in individuals with ruled out ASD.
背景
在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中发现了明显的述情障碍特征，最近的研究已经确定述情障碍特征可能对与 ASD 相关的心理化缺陷产生影响。
方法
在这项横断面研究中，对一个可能患有 ASD 的大样本诊断参考人群（n=400）进行了德语版读心测试（RME）的临床述情障碍筛查。与之前通过分析来确定述情障碍特征对心理化缺陷的影响的尝试不同，我们采用了优势分析来解释预测因素之间的相关性。在确诊为 ASD 的个体组（n=281）中，我们研究了述情障碍特征与自闭症特征与 RME 表现之间的相对关系，并与排除了 ASD 的临床参考样本（n=119）进行了比较。
结果
优势分析显示，自闭症特征是 ASD 样本中心理化技能下降的最强预测因素，而述情障碍特征的贡献较小。在排除诊断的个体样本中，自闭症特征是最强的预测因素，但述情障碍特征总体上同样与心理化有关，其中外向思维量表是这种关联的一个重要预测因素。
局限性
需要考虑的是，横断面研究设计不允许进行因果推断。此外，心理化是一种高度复杂的能力，测量需要将这种复杂性简化为简单的数量，这限制了结果的普遍性。
讨论
虽然述情障碍特征应该因其心理健康的重要性而被考虑，但它们并不能主导 ASD 个体心理化技能下降的解释，而在排除 ASD 的个体中，它们可能在更大程度上起作用。
Zotero 插件