A case-controlled study of repetitive thoughts and behavior in adults with autistic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Type:#article
- Year read:#read2021
- Subject: OCD ASD
- Bibtex: @mcdougle1995
- Bibliography: McDougle, C. J. et al. A case-controlled study of repetitive thoughts and behavior in adults with autistic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Am. J. Psychiatry 152, 772–777 (1995).
Key takeaways
- Aggressive thoughts more typical of OCD than ASD
- Hoarding and self-harm more typical of ASD than OCD
- three
They wanted to compare the types of repetitive thoughts and behavior in ASD to OCD. 50 ASD-patients completed the YBOCS checklist.
Less common in ASD:
- Aggressive, contamination, sexual, religious, symmetry and somatic obsessions (not hoarding or need to know/remember obsessions)
- Cleaning, checking, counting compulsions
More common in ASD: - Ordering, hoarding, telling or asking, touching, tapping or rubbing, self-damaging or self-mutilating behavior
These results suggest that the repetitive thoughts and behavior characteristic of autism differ significantly from the obsessive-compulsive symptoms displayed by patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
After some kind of ”stepwise discriminant function analysis”, the authors find that aggressive thoughts are the strongest predictor of OCD rather than ASD. Hoarding and self-damaging behavior is the strongest indicator of ASD rather than OCD.