Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome do not score higher on the autism-spectrum quotient than healthy controls: Comparison with autism spectrum disorder. — CFSMEATLAS
Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome do not score higher on the autism-spectrum quotient than healthy controls: Comparison with autism spectrum disorder.
Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre, Maroti, Daniel, Bejerot, Susanne · Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2018 · DOI
Quick Summary
This study compared autistic traits in people with ME/CFS, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and healthy people. Although ME/CFS and autism share some overlapping symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and sensitivity to sound and light, the study found that people with ME/CFS did not show more autistic traits than healthy controls. People with autism did score higher on the autism assessment, showing the test can distinguish between the conditions.
Why It Matters
This finding helps clarify the relationship between ME/CFS and autism, addressing a common clinical question about whether these conditions overlap in their neurodevelopmental profiles. For patients and researchers, it suggests that symptom overlap may reflect shared physiological mechanisms rather than shared autism-spectrum characteristics, potentially redirecting diagnostic and treatment approaches toward ME/CFS-specific mechanisms.
Observed Findings
Adults with ASD scored significantly higher on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient than both the CFS group and healthy controls.
No statistically significant differences in AQ scores were found between the CFS group and healthy control group.
Diagnostic group status influenced AQ scores in multivariate analysis, whereas age and sex did not.
Clinical overlap exists between CFS and ASD symptoms (fatigue, brain fog, sensory sensitivities, pain, cognitive impairment) despite distinct AQ profiles.
Inferred Conclusions
Despite observable symptom overlap between CFS and ASD, adult patients with CFS do not exhibit elevated autistic traits as measured by the AQ.
The choice and type of assessment instrument for autistic traits may substantially influence study results and apparent associations between conditions.
CFS and ASD likely represent distinct diagnostic entities in terms of autism-spectrum characteristics, even when they share surface-level clinical symptoms.
Remaining Questions
Would other autism assessment instruments (e.g., observational assessments, diagnostic interviews) or objective biomarkers reveal different patterns of autism-spectrum traits in CFS populations?
What specific neurobiological or physiological mechanisms explain the symptom overlap between CFS and ASD despite different autism-trait profiles?
What This Study Does Not Prove
This study does not prove that ME/CFS and autism are completely unrelated or that there is no underlying neurobiological overlap. It measures only self-reported autistic traits using one specific questionnaire; other assessment methods or objective measures might reveal different patterns. The study also cannot determine whether symptom overlap is coincidental, mechanistically distinct, or reflects limitations in how current diagnostic tools capture autistic traits in ME/CFS populations.