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Adults with autism slip through net

Adults with autism could become the hidden face of the disorder due to a lack of adult-specific diagnostic tools, a researcher has warned.

Flinders University PhD candidate Clare Holmes (right) is beginning a four-year study to develop tools to improve the diagnosis and understanding of autism characteristics later in life.

Holmes said many diagnostic tools could identify autism-spectrum disorder in childhood but detection in older people often relied on information that was difficult for adults to obtain or poorly targeted. She said anecdotal evidence showed a growing number of people were being diagnosed in adulthood. ā€œSome people are diagnosed as adults because they are going through the diagnostic process with their child and recognise some of the same characteristics in themselves.

ā€œOthers might not have needed a diagnosis until adulthood because they had a lot of support as a child but pressures in adulthood, such as the breakdown of a relationship, might lead them to seek help.ā€

Milder forms of autism, such as Aspergerā€™s syndrome, had not been added to the diagnostic guidelines until the mid 1990s, so some adults with the condition were likely to remain undiagnosed.

Holmes said she aimed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of what autism looked like in adulthood. ā€œChildren and adults with an autism-spectrum disorder will usually show the same broad social impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviours but these traits wonā€™t look the same,ā€ she said. ā€œSome of the communication difficulties in childhood, for example, will be totally different for adults. Thatā€™s why I want to develop diagnostic tools that reflect how autism presents in adulthood so we can ensure adults donā€™t become the hidden face of autism.ā€

Diagnosis in adulthood could provide relief to people who had experienced unexplained difficulties for many years.

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