An investigation into the relationship between eating disorder psychopathology and autistic symptomatology in a non-clinical sample

Abstract

OBJECTIVE. Female adults with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN) have been found to score higher than healthy controls on a questionnaire that measures characteristics associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This research investigated the relationship between eating disorder (ED) and ASD symptomatology in a non-clinical sample, with an additional focus on prenatal testosterone (pT) levels. DESIGN. A cross-sectional research design was used. The selected age group of both males and females allowed for a focus on early onset of ED symptomatology in both sexes. METHODS. Self-reported questionnaire data from the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) were collected from 132 schoolchildren (61 boys, 71 girls) aged 11 to 14, with no recorded psychiatric diagnoses. Digit ratio (2D:4D) measures to index levels of pT exposure were also obtained. RESULTS. A significant relationship between levels of ED symptomatology and ASD symptomatology was identified. Particularly strong relationships were identified between the EAT-26 and the attention to detail and communication subscales of the AQ. Few relationships were found for digit ratios. CONCLUSION. The results extend previous research from a sample with a diagnosis of AN to a non-clinical population. Those registering higher levels of ED symptomatology also reported higher levels of attention to detail and communication difficulties associated with ASD.

Emotions mediate the relationship between autistic traits and disordered eating: A new autistic-emotional model for eating pathology

“…The finding that disordered eating symptoms and the total AQ score were positively related, is supported by previous clinical (Westwood et al, 2015) and non-clinical (Carton and Smith, 2014;Coombs et al, 2011) studies. We found strong positive correlations between greater attention-switching difficulties and all EAT-26 subscales, a finding which has been supported by previous research investigating both clinical ED samples (Hambrook et al, 2008) and nonclinical populations (Carton and Smith, 2014).…”

“…It is possible that this finding is related to the higher novelty seeking scores commonly associated with bulimic symptoms and behaviours (Atiye et al, 2015;Garrido and Subirá, 2012), however, this finding should await replication in future studies. Notably, attention to detail did not correlate with any of the EAT-26 subscales, a finding that has been corroborated by a recent meta-analysis in AN and controls (Westwood et al, 2015), although has been contradicted by previous non-clinical studies (Carton and Smith, 2014;Coombs et al, 2011) not included in the review. Further research assessing community and clinical samples is however required to verify these findings.…”

“…The study found that empathising was significantly related to eating pathology. Future studies using community samples are needed to verify these initial results and to clarify the discrepant findings regarding the relationship between EAT-26 scores and AQ scales (Carton and Smith, 2014;Coombs et al, 2011). …”

“…To our knowledge, only two studies have assessed the link between eating pathology and autistic traits in non-clinical samples, one assessing school children (Coombs et al, 2011) and the other one recruiting university students (Carton and Smith, 2014). Both studies reported that greater attention-to-detail, communication deficits, and attention-switching deficits assessed through the AQ, were significantly related to increased total Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; [Garner et al, 1982]) scores.…”

“…Therefore, the question of whether this relationship holds in the general population remains largely unexplored (Carton and Smith, 2014;Coombs et al, 2011). While there have been a few studies outlining that ASD and EDs share some familial (genetic) behavioural traits (e.g.…”