r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 5d ago

Neuroscience New study finds online self-reports may not accurately reflect clinical autism diagnoses. Adults who report high levels of autistic traits through online surveys may not reflect the same social behaviors or clinical profiles as those who have been formally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

https://www.psypost.org/new-study-finds-online-self-reports-may-not-accurately-reflect-clinical-autism-diagnoses/
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u/Cute-Ad-3829 5d ago edited 5d ago

Fun fact you can have your teachers and parents notice autistic traits AND you can get multiple tests done that show you have processing issues AND you can complain to the doctor about your extreme social anxiety AND they will still diagnose you with a mood/personality disorder if you are a woman.

which sucks when the treatments that exist for mood/personality disorders are quite possibly the worst thing you can give a person with a processing disorder.

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u/SweetRiley96 5d ago

How do you know this? Because that's exactly what happened to me and it turns out i did have a mood disorder. That's what thorough testing is for. If my symptoms were dismissed as autism, I wouldn't be on the very necessary medication I'm on now. Psychology is a practice and tons of symptoms can be comorbid. I have bipolar and adhd and i need medication to handle my symptoms. If i was misdiagnosed as autistic (because a lot of autism and bipolar and adhd symptoms are the same) i would be unmedicated and an absolute menace to society. That's why self diagnosis can be extremely harmful.

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u/Cute-Ad-3829 5d ago edited 3d ago

That's what happened to me. I was diagnosed and treated for ADHD since childhood, then in college I got severely depressed with intermittent periods of hyper fixation and joy so I was diagnosed with bipolar.

After 10 years of trying 20+ mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, and going to the psych ward three times, I finally met a nurse practitioner who recognized the autism and connected me to the right specialists for a treatment plan.

Now I'm on the right medication (auvelity), and I know if I continued down the path of trying to find the right bipolar meds, I'd be dead.

ADHD/bipolar exists, but is much less common than ADHD/autism. ADHD is a processing disorder. Autism is processing issue + social impairment, so it's mind boggling how many doctors were convinced I was bipolar when it literally could not be more clearly autism.

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u/RadixPerpetualis 5d ago

It can also be the flip of this where it actually is ASD and assume bipolar to which some of the meds can be very damaging, especially if you don't need them.

Misdiagnosis in general is very harmful, and doctors are faster to give meds without full verification instead of thorough examination. . .at least where I am.