10.17605/OSF.IO/KQSWD
Eleana Naci
Eleana
Naci
https://osf.io/eucjm/
Sander Begeer
Sander
Begeer
https://osf.io/2qpfg/
0000-0002-0572-6893
Pim Cuijpers
Pim
Cuijpers
https://osf.io/2mhks/
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Leonore de Wit
Leonore
de Wit
https://osf.io/t3un6/
Predictors of Depression and Anxiety in Adults with Autism
Open Science Framework
2022
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Psychology
Open Science Framework
https://ror.org/05d5mza29/
https://grid.ac/institutes/grid.466501.0/
2021-04-28
2021-08-31
2022-08-30
Pre-registration
No license
ASD is a lifelong condition, leading to a need for more studies exploring the adult population (Wise et.al. 2017). Autistic individuals have rates of co-morbidity as high as 58% to 98% (Rosa et.al. 2016). Depression and anxiety are the most common (Uljarevic et.al. 2019), with an estimation of current and lifetime prevalence in adults with ASD at 23% to 37% for depressive disorder and 27% to 42% for any anxiety disorder (Hollocks. et.al. 2019). This is in sharp contrast to a 10% rate of depressive disorders and 5% to 10% of anxiety disorders in the general population (Chandrasekhar & Sikich, 2015; Baxter et.al. 2012).
Predictors of depression and anxiety in the general population are age, gender, family/genetic factors, physical/medical illness, IQ, co-occurring psychiatric conditions, lack of social support, self-esteem, social isolation, and life stress (see Ghaziuddin et.al. 2002; Cooper et.al. 2016; Matheis & Turygin, 2016; Chandrasekhar & Sikich, 2015; Keller et.al. 2019; Lever & Geurtz, 2016). For the ASD population research has further added autism severity, alexithymia, loneliness, satisfaction with social support, and, externalizing symptomatology, excessive irritability and behavioral excesses, as significant predictors of depressive symptomology (Morey et.al. 2019; Liss et.al. 2008; Kuzminskaite et.al. 2020; Hedley et.al. 2018). Moreover, sensory processing sensitivity, experienced throughout live by 94% of individuals with ASD (Crane et.al. 2009; Milosavljevic et.al. 2016), is related to the presence of depression/anxiety (Liss. et.al. 2005; Serafini et.al. 2017), or anxiety only (Neat et.al. 2002; Green & Ben-Sasson, 2010; Suy & Lin, 2018). Mixed results have been also been found for the effects of gender and IQ, and autism severity (Hedley et.al. 2018; Ghaziuddin et.al. 2002; Rosen et.al. 2018; Lin et.al. 2013; De-la-Iglesia & Olivar, 2015; Jackson et.al. 2018; Matheis & Turygin, 2016).
Given mixed research results about rates and predictors of depression and anxiety, the methodological inconsistencies, low sample sizes, the adverse effects that depression and anxiety has on overall quality of life, education, employment, and well-being (Howlin et.al. 2004) and its link to increasing suicidal ideation in the adult ASD population in which suicidal ideation is at a 66% while attempts or planning at a 35% (Keller. et.al. 2019; Lai et.al. 2015), it is essential that these factors are further explored in a large sample of autistic adults.
The aim of this study is to examine if the rates and common predictors of anxiety/ depression from 3 categories (socio-demographic, comorbidity, and autism traits) are found also in the adult ASD population.