Neville-Jones Rosemary, Garvin Tracy, Enticott Peter G, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz Matthew, Kirkovski Melissa
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 May 15. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06871-3.
There is growing evidence to suggest an overlap between autism spectrum disorder (autism) and anorexia nervosa (AN), both of which are known to be highly heritable conditions. The aim of this study was to explore overlapping behavioural and clinical characteristics, and neurocognitive profiles related to the autism dyad of symptoms among parents. Parents of autistic children, parents of children with AN, and parents of typically developing children completed a battery of behavioural questionnaires and neurocognitive tasks related to social cognition and cognitive flexibility. Parents of autistic children reported significantly more difficulties on imaginative abilities compared to the other two parent groups. Parents of children with AN had superior performance on cognitive flexibility tasks. As expected, and in support of an overlap between the two conditions, increased eating disorder psychopathology was associated with poorer performance on neurocognitive tasks related to the autism dyad. Understanding the overlap between AN and autism has important implications for accurate development of risk profiles, diagnosis, as well as treatment. This is critical as those with overlapping traits of autism and AN have poorer treatment outcomes and are at higher risk of the damaging physical health consequences of AN.
越来越多的证据表明，自闭症谱系障碍（自闭症）和神经性厌食症（AN）之间存在重叠，这两种疾病都具有高度遗传性。本研究的目的是探索父母中与自闭症症状二元组相关的重叠行为和临床特征以及神经认知概况。自闭症儿童的父母、AN儿童的父母以及发育正常儿童的父母完成了一系列与社会认知和认知灵活性相关的行为问卷和神经认知任务。与其他两组父母相比，自闭症儿童的父母在想象力方面报告的困难明显更多。AN儿童的父母在认知灵活性任务上表现更优。正如预期的那样，并且为了支持这两种疾病之间的重叠，饮食失调精神病理学的增加与与自闭症症状二元组相关的神经认知任务表现较差有关。了解AN和自闭症之间的重叠对于准确制定风险概况、诊断以及治疗具有重要意义。这至关重要，因为具有自闭症和AN重叠特征的人治疗效果较差，并且患AN对身体健康造成损害后果的风险更高。
