Reported autism diagnosis is associated with psychotic-like symptoms in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Although the schizophrenia (SCZ) rate is increased in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is difficult to identify which ASD youth will develop psychosis. We explored the relationship between ASD and emerging psychotic-like experiences (PLS) in a sample of 9127 youth aged 9–11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort. We predicted that parent-reported ASD would be associated with PLS severity, and that ASD youth with PLS (ASD+/PLS+) would differ from ASD youth without PLS (ASD+/PLS−) and youth with PLS but not ASD (ASD−/PLS+) in cognitive function. We fit regression models that included parent-reported ASD, family history of psychosis, lifetime trauma, executive function, processing speed, working memory, age, sex, race, ethnicity, and income-to-needs ratio as predictors of Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Child (PQ-BC) distress score, a continuous index of PLS severity. We assessed cognitive differences using regression models with ASD/PLS status and relevant covariates as predictors of NIH Toolbox measures. ASD increased raw PQ-BC distress scores by 2.47 points (95% CI 1.33–3.61), an effect at least as large as Black race (1.27 points, 95% CI 0.75–1.78), family history of psychosis (1.05 points, 95% CI 0.56–1.54), and Latinx ethnicity (0.99 points, 95% CI 0.53–1.45. We did not identify differences in cognition for ASD+/PLS+ youth relative to other groups. Our finding of association between ASD and PLS in youth is consistent with previous literature and adds new information in suggesting that ASD may be a strong risk factor for PLS even compared to established SCZ risk factors.

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Acknowledgements

This project was financially supported by a Whitaker Scholar in Developmental Neuropsychiatry Award to Dr. Jutla funded by the Marilyn and James Simons Foundation. Dr. Jutla's work was also supported by NIH 2T32MH016434­41, awarded to Drs. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele and Rachel Marsh. The ABCD study is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041022, U01DA041028, U01DA041048, U01DA041089, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041120, U01DA041134, U01DA041148, U01DA041156, U01DA041174, U24DA041123, and U24DA041147. Information about the study’s supporters, participating sites, and study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org. Although ABCD investigators provided data, they did not participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript therefore reflects the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Amandeep Jutla & Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Meghan Rose Donohue

  3. Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Jennifer H. Foss-Feig

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  1. Amandeep Jutla
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  2. Meghan Rose Donohue
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  3. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele
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  4. Jennifer H. Foss-Feig
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Correspondence to Amandeep Jutla.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Veenstra-VanderWeele has consulted or served on an advisory board for Roche Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, and SynapDx; has received research funding from Roche Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, SynapDx, Seaside Therapeutics, and Forest; and has received an editorial stipend from Springer and Wiley. The remaining authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Jutla, A., Donohue, M.R., Veenstra-VanderWeele, J. et al. Reported autism diagnosis is associated with psychotic-like symptoms in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01738-1

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Keywords

  • Schizophrenia
  • Psychotic-like symptoms
  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Early diagnosis