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are people with autism more prone to psychoticism?

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StuartN
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08 Oct 2010, 3:56 pm

Callista wrote:
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There are at least three issues that link psychosis and autism: 1) Many of the behaviours and verbal expressions of autistic people seem detached from reality as it is usually expressed; ...

The "detached from reality" thing you get with autism is actually not psychosis; it's closer to dissociation. Think of dissociation as daydreaming or zoning out--rather than perceiving something that isn't reality, you're simply tuning out of perception. Dissociative disorders have very little to do with psychosis. Plus, most autistic people are too tuned in--they notice too much about their surroundings, so much so that they have trouble responding to people because they're trying to filter out the communication from the noise.


No, I do not mean dissociation at all. Autistic people may have verbal traits (e.g. stating opinion as fact, expressing thoughts that others would keep private) and behaviours (changing or apparently avoiding a topic, obsessional interest) that are different from a psychiatrist's expectations of typical behaviour. The reality expressed by an autistic person may appear different ("detached") from the expected expressions of reality, especially when autism has not been diagnosed. These can be misinterpreted as delusional or psychotic.



gramirez
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08 Oct 2010, 4:10 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D4

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As with other dopamine receptor subtypes, the D4 receptor is activated by the neurotransmitter dopamine. It is linked to many neurological and psychiatric conditions including schizophrenia, Parkinsons disease, bipolar disorder, addictive behaviors including sex addiction, and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating.

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The 'DRD4 long' variant, or more specifically the 7 repeat (7R), has been loosely linked to a susceptibility for developing ADHD[8] and other psychological traits and disorders, like autism and bulimia nervosa[9]

7R appears to react less strongly to dopamine molecules.[10].


Food for thought.


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