Psychiatric and Medical Profiles of Autistic Adults in the SPARK Cohort
Abstract
This study examined lifetime medical and psychiatric morbidity reported by caregivers of 2917 autistic adults participating in the US research cohort SPARK. Participants were 78.4% male, 47.3% had intellectual disability, and 32.1% had persistent language impairments. Childhood language disorders (59.7%), speech/articulation problems (32.8%), sleep (39.4%) and eating problems (29.4%), motor delays (22.8%) and history of seizure (15.5%) were the most frequently reported clinical features. Over two thirds (67.2%) had been diagnosed with at least one psychiatric disorder (anxiety disorders: 41.1%; ADHD: 38.7%). Compared to verbally fluent participants, those with language impairments had lower frequencies of almost all psychiatric disorders. Female sex and older age were associated with higher medical and psychiatric morbidity.
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Mental health problems were highly prevalent in the current sample.
“Consistent with prior research (Croen et al., 2015;Fombonne et al., 2020;Jadav & Bal, 2022;Lai et al., 2019;Lugo-Marín et al., 2019;Rydzewska et al., 2018), mental health problems were highly prevalent in the current sample.”
From A mixed methods study of autistic adults' mental health therapy experiences (2023) · cites this paper as Fombonne et al., 2020
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References 88 · Cited by 65
- Authors
- The SPARK Consortium, Fombonne, E., Green Snyder, L., Daniels, A., Feliciano, P., & Chung, W.
- Affiliations
- Oregon Health & Science University (US)
- Simons Foundation (US)
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fombonne, Eric
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2020-02-24
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 3679-3698
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- OpenAlex
- W3009036752
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 4.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Simons Foundation (383303)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Down syndrome and intellectual disability research
- Keywords
- autistic adults, psychiatric comorbidity, medical morbidity, SPARK cohort, intellectual disability, language impairment, language disorders in children, sleep disorders, feeding difficulties, motor delay, seizure history, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, verbal fluency, sex differences, age differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Anxiety Disorders, Autistic Disorder, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Intellectual Disability, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sex Factors, United States, Cohort Studies, Young Adult
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