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There is substantial comorbidity with ASD and ADHD. ADHD occurs in ~4.4% of the general population, but with ASD that goes up to ~45% (the margin of error is ma

There is substantial comorbidity with ASD and ADHD. ADHD occurs in ~4.4% of the general population, but with ASD that goes up to ~45% (the margin of error is massive on the latter) Some of the symptoms of ADHD, like RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), sound very much like ASD traits rather than ADHD traits. In the future I think we'll find a lot more underlying commonalities of all of these conditions. OCD, GID (gender identity disorder), misophonia, tourettes and more are also strikingly comorbid within ASD.

wpietri 7y ago
There was a great Philosophy Bites podcast that talked about the high comorbidity of mental disorders. This one, I think: https://philosophybites.com/2016/01/steven-hyman-on-categorising-mental-disorders.html https://philosophybites.com/2016/01/steven-hyman-on-categori... The point that stuck with me is that, as you say, the high comorbidity is strong evidence that we have a bad model of the situation. Part of that for me is the medicalization of deviance. As an example, I saw a bit on Twitter from an autism researcher who was sitting in on a young girl getting tested for autism. She was shown an animation of triangles moving around in a way that neurotypicals would anthropomorphize: https://twitter.com/DrRubySapphire/status/1232787807363461120 https://twitter.com/DrRubySapphire/status/123278780736346112... She described how the triangles moved instead of humanizing them. She recognized that they looked like they were playing, but knew that triangles didn't have minds. That was marked as a failure, a sign of sickness. Not because she was wrong, but because she was different from the norm. I think a lot about the world where we just accept that there are a bunch of different kinds of people and stop trying to fit them all into one mold. Where we make the world work for all of them, not just the "normal" ones (which, historically, seems to mean straight, white, moneyed, neurotypical men of a particular body type).
skissane 7y ago
Have you seen this paper? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0631-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0631-2 They cast doubt on the biological validity of the distinction between ASD, ADHD and OCD. Similarly, in this editorial – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28714261 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28714261 – Waterhouse et al write "The ASD diagnosis lacks boundary construct validity because 96% of those with ASD have significant non-diagnostic symptoms, including many who have full comorbid disorders" Waterhouse et al expand on their arguments in that editorial in this paper – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40489-016-0085-x https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40489-016-0085-...

wpietri 7y ago

There was a great Philosophy Bites podcast that talked about the high comorbidity of mental disorders. This one, I think: https://philosophybites.com/2016/01/steven-hyman-on-categorising-mental-disorders.html https://philosophybites.com/2016/01/steven-hyman-on-categori... The point that stuck with me is that, as you say, the high comorbidity is strong evidence that we have a bad model of the situation. Part of that for me is the medicalization of deviance. As an example, I saw a bit on Twitter from an autism researcher who was sitting in on a young girl getting tested for autism. She was shown an animation of triangles moving around in a way that neurotypicals would anthropomorphize: https://twitter.com/DrRubySapphire/status/1232787807363461120 https://twitter.com/DrRubySapphire/status/123278780736346112... She described how the triangles moved instead of humanizing them. She recognized that they looked like they were playing, but knew that triangles didn't have minds. That was marked as a failure, a sign of sickness. Not because she was wrong, but because she was different from the norm. I think a lot about the world where we just accept that there are a bunch of different kinds of people and stop trying to fit them all into one mold. Where we make the world work for all of them, not just the "normal" ones (which, historically, seems to mean straight, white, moneyed, neurotypical men of a particular body type).

skissane 7y ago

Have you seen this paper? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0631-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0631-2 They cast doubt on the biological validity of the distinction between ASD, ADHD and OCD. Similarly, in this editorial – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28714261 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28714261 – Waterhouse et al write "The ASD diagnosis lacks boundary construct validity because 96% of those with ASD have significant non-diagnostic symptoms, including many who have full comorbid disorders" Waterhouse et al expand on their arguments in that editorial in this paper – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40489-016-0085-x https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40489-016-0085-...