I've long known of the overlap of symptoms in shitzophenia and autism
While shitzophenia is more widely attributed to be a mental illness with hallucinations, delusions and paranoia as the positive symptoms. the negative symptoms sometimes overlap with autism. Some of the overlaping negative symptoms include
- social withdrawal early on
flattened affect, which means that people may not express emotion in typical ways and may speak in a monotone voice or have a lack of facial expression
poor eye contact
problems communicating
restricted speech
unusual behaviors
psychomotor abnormalities, which is the relationship between cognitive function and physical movement
The link is great enough that, a disporportionate number of autistic individuals will also develop shitzophenia