Table 2.
Basic differences between ASD and SCZ patients for the detection of delusions, hallucinations, and negative symptoms.
Delusions | Not fully evaluable in non-verbal ASD patients |
Clinicians should distinguish between “childish fantasies” and clinical delusional beliefs in ASD patients | |
In ASD patients, delusional ideas have a precise and recognizable time of onset along the clinical course of pre-existing childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder | |
Hallucinations | ASD patients show more frequently anomalous perceptual experiences (APEs) than true psychotic hallucinations |
First-hand descriptions of APEs are usually made only by adult high-functioning ASD patients | |
APEs should be considered as psychotic hallucinations only if their source is attributed to the outside world. | |
Negative symptoms | Unlike autistic symptoms, negative symptoms occur after the psychotic onset and have a progressive worsening clinical course |
ASD subjects show “poverty and inappropriateness of reciprocity” rather than affective flattening | |
Compared to SCZ patients, in ASD loss of social contact Is frequently associated with repetitive behaviors |