Delusion-proneness displays comorbidity with traits of autistic-spectrum disorders and ADHD

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 5; p. e0177820
• Main Authors: Louzolo, Anaïs, Gustavsson, Petter, Tigerström, Lars, Ingvar, Martin, Olsson, Andreas, Petrovic, Predrag
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 18.05.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Age; Antipsychotics; Arches; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - epidemiology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Auditory perception; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - epidemiology; Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology; Biology and Life Sciences; Bipolar disorder; Brain; Children; Chronic effects; Coding; Cognitive ability; Comorbidity; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Criteria; Data processing; Delusions - epidemiology; Diagnostic systems; Disabilities; Disease Susceptibility; Disorders; Dopamine; Emotional behavior; Factor analysis; Female; Females; Functions (mathematics); Genetic factors; Genetics; Health aspects; Humans; Hyperactivity; Intellectual disabilities; Inventories; Male; Males; Mathematical analysis; Mediation; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Movement disorders; Nervous system; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroimaging; Parkinson's disease; Personality; Physical Sciences; Psychiatry; Psychosis; Psychotic disorders; Reinforcement; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk factors; Schizophrenia; Self Report; Skin; Social interactions; Social Sciences; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Symptomology; Visual perception; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177820

There is an increasing body of evidence suggesting a significant comorbidity between psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism-spectrum disorders (ASD). Recently, research on psychosis-proneness in otherwise healthy individuals has been a promising way to better understand the mechanisms underlying psychosis. As both ADHD and ASD symptoms show a normal distribution in the general population, such trait comorbidity may confound studies on psychosis-proneness. Thus, understanding the extent to which psychosis-proneness relates to ADHD and ASD symptoms in healthy subjects is crucial for studies focusing on at-risk or psychosis-prone populations. In the present paper we tested the robustness of overlap between psychosis-proneness and ADHD/ASD symptoms, by studying correlations between the scores of three commonly-used questionnaires assessing delusion-proneness (Peters' Delusion Inventory), ADHD tendencies (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale) and ASD tendencies (Autism Quotient), on a large sample of healthy individuals (n = 925) using raw scores, prototypical questions and a factor analysis. The results showed consistently positive correlations between psychosis-proneness and ADHD-, as well as ASD-symptoms. While the effect was weak for ASD, it was moderate for ADHD. The findings support the idea that when investigating psychosis-proneness it is crucial to also take ADHD- and ASD-tendencies into account, in order to conclude that the reported results in a given study are specific to psychosis-proneness. The observed trait correlations also suggest a common pathway in the underlying information processing of these states.