![]() recently developed and validated the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum), an instrument with the purpose of evaluating the presence of full-threshold and/or subthreshold autism spectrum symptoms and traits in adults without intellectual disabilities and language development alterations. In these cases, frequently the underlying ASD is not investigated by clinicians, remaining undiagnosed and untreated, while leading to higher treatment resistance and worse outcomes, including chronicization and suicidality risk. In particular, some authors stressed that milder forms of ASD may be under-recognized during childhood, and thus patients will eventually come to clinical attention only when developing, in their adulthood, other disorders in comorbidity. Īt the same time, while ASD, as a neurodevelopmental disorder, is a condition generally detected and clinically addressed in childhood, a wide number of studies highlighted the need of providing more attention to detect ASD (as well as autistic traits) also among adults. The recent interest in investigating autistic traits is justified by the body of evidence that highlighted how such features, also when subthreshold, may be associated with significant clinical correlates, including a higher vulnerability towards the development of psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation and behaviours. However, further studies stressed how autistic traits seem to be continuously distributed also amongst the general population, and in particular amongst some high-risk groups (such as university students of scientific courses), as well as in clinical samples of patients with other kinds of psychiatric disorders. The relevance of autistic traits was highlighted for the first time amongst first degree relatives of ASD probands, leading to the conceptualization of a “broad autism phenotype” and corroborating the hypothesis of a genetic liability linked to these features. Autistic traits are a set of features (such as impaired social skills, atypical and restricted interests, aloof personality) similar to, although less severe of, ASD typical presentation. However, DSM-5 classi-fication of ASD does not encompass the broader spectrum of ASD milder (or atypical) manifestations and subthreshold autistic traits, whose relevance is increasingly gaining attention in the recent literature. This choice went in the direction of a dimensional approach to psychopathology, according to the purpose of classifying psychiatric disorders on the basis of both common clinical presentations and shared pathophysiology, in the framework of a link between symptomatic manifestations and brain functioning. In DSM-5, these diagnoses have been merged into the broader label of ASD. In the last few decades, a growing number of data pointed out the presence of a quantitative more than a qualitative difference between the old categories of Autistic and Asperger's Disorder described in DSM-IV TR. The diagnosis of ASD encompasses patients with very different levels of impairment, with or without the presence of intellectual disabilities and language development alterations. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition characterized by an impairment in social communication and interactions, as well as in restricted interests and repetitive behaviours with a significant impact on global functioning.
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