Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov 7;13(11):1559.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci13111559.

Implications of Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Is There a Predictive Role of Interpersonal Sensitivity and Substance Abuse?

Barbara Carpita  1 , Ivan Mirko Cremone  1 , Benedetta Nardi  1 , Giulia Amatori  1 , Chiara Bonelli  1 , Enrico Massimetti  2 , Danila Casagrande  1 , Stefano Pini  1 , Liliana Dell'Osso  1
Affiliations

Implications of Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Is There a Predictive Role of Interpersonal Sensitivity and Substance Abuse?

Barbara Carpita et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been frequently reported by subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, interestingly, the overlap between social anxiety and autistic traits may sometimes impede ASD diagnosis in subjects without intellectual or language impairment. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the presence and correlates of social phobic features among subjects with ASD, with a specific focus on evaluating which social anxiety symptoms may be statistically predictive of an ASD diagnosis. With this purpose, 48 subjects with ASD and 48 gender- and age- matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and assessed with the SHY-SV and the AdAS Spectrum questionnaires. Results highlighted higher scores in all SHY-SV Spectrum domains and total scores for the ASD group. Moreover, AdAS Spectrum scores were significantly correlated with all SHY-SV domain and total scores. A logistic regression analysis highlighted the SHY-SV Interpersonal sensitivity and Substance Abuse domains scores as significant positive predictors of an ASD diagnosis. These results confirm the link between ASD and SAD. Because of this association, particular attention should be paid to subjects with high interpersonal sensitivity traits and substance abuse problems.

Keywords: autism; autism spectrum disorder; interpersonal sensitivity; social anxiety disorder; substance abuse.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SHY–SV scores boxplots.
Figure 1
Figure 1
SHY–SV scores boxplots.
Figure 2
Figure 2
AdAS Spectrum scores boxplots.
Figure 2
Figure 2
AdAS Spectrum scores boxplots.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. American Psychiatric Association; Washington, DC, USA: 2023.
    1. Spain D., Zıvralı Yarar E., Happé F. Social anxiety in adults with autism: A qualitative study. Int. J. Qual. Stud. Health Well-Being. 2020;15:1803669. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2020.1803669. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Autism: Recognition, Referral, Diagnosis and Management of Adults on the Autism Spectrum, NICE Guidelines [CG142] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Washington, DC, USA: 2012.
    1. Lai M.C., Kassee C., Besney R., Bonato S., Hull L., Mandy W., Szatmari P., Ameis S.H. Prevalence of co-occurring mental health diagnoses in the autism population: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019;6:819–829. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30289-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Simonoff E., Pickles A., Charman T., Chandler T., Baird G. Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: Prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample. J. Am. Acad. Child. Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2008;47:921–929. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e318179964f. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources