Isn't schizoid and avoident personality disorder Autism?

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Verdandi,

Here you go. Note that if you're using Chrome you will need to mid-click or Ctrl-click the button when you're done:

http://schizotypaldisorder.webs.com/test.htm

Huh:

I tried to find something to interpret the scores with. Still, kinda high there.

I haven't had a brain scan to test my "startle reflex" but I get extremely upset by sudden loud noises. I live with people who think that banging on the door to knock is appropriate and then get mad at me for being like "WHAT?"

Even so, I had someone who herself is schizophrenic point out that she thought I was displaying schizotypal traits, which I agree with. That there is overlap for autistic people to have schizotypal traits is something I wonder about. I made a thread about it on this forum some time ago, but I'm not sure that thread really covered the kind of ground I'd want covered now.

What I read said that it represents a reduced ability to "habituate," that is, to block out stimuli that typical people would have already found irrelevant and would ignore, but in schizophrenia the gating is flawed and apparently you get hit with all this irrelevant stuff (which seems related to the concept of aberrant salience). In schizophrenia, poor PPI seems to also be related to other issues with blocking out irrelevant things, such as blocking irrelevant, unimportant (to you) thoughts while you are trying to concentrate on something, which reduced ability is called thought interference.

Maybe ask your prof how low PPI might impact somebody's life?

As much as I would be happy to continue this conversation prior experiences with you two have proved to be unproductive where any hint of psychology was used. May I suggest that if you have questions about your test scores you bring it to the attention of your respected therapist.

Yes, you're right it does have to do with habituation, one sound sensitizes you so you're not as startled by the next sound, or you're not supposed to be. My guess was probably wrong. The class I took was two years ago when I was finishing my undergraduate degree. It was the last course I took for my degree so I don't have contact with the professor. His name is Walter Heinrichs and he teaches at York University in Toronto, Canada. His research interest is Schizophrenia. In fact he decided to devote half of his full year neuropsychology course to the disorder. I'm posting a link to his contact info that he has posted on a public domain. Maybe you could e-mail him. You can tell him that one of his students told you he talked about low PPI as a potential endophenotype for Schizophrenia but don't tell him my guess about how it would effect you - less alertness- because I think that was wrong and he didn't say anything about that. He seemed like a nice person but he might be very busy, Good luck.PROFCONTACT

Actually, post here if he does respond and tells you anything interesting, please.

Have fun.

It took 18 minutes to complete the test. Verdandi, may I ask how much time did you need to complete?

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... 5.full.pdf

"Thought interference" makes sense to me.

This may seem far-fetched but I strongly believe that having an overall better self-esteem (besides accepting difficulties) and having the ability to speak up for yourself helps a lot. If you are more in control, having a firmer grip on the steering-wheel, you will make mistakes, but eventually you'll arrive at a higher level of sense of responsibility and - voilà! - stability (which is highly desired).

Looks like about approximately seven minutes, since I posted seven minutes after beneficii posted the link.

But I'd been talking about this stuff with someone else, so it's been on my mind.

This talks about distinguishing autism from schizotypy:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/gue ... chizotypy/

Formal thought disorder and autism:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18297385

Differential diagnosis:

http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/7/4/310.full

Schizotypal is nearly halfway down the page.

A paper on ASD/schizophrenia comorbidity:

http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/113458

I was actually not replying to you at all, nor was I interested in any discussion with you. I was trying to respond to beneficii.

You know, you would be a lot happier if you just got over this issue you have with them.

"This one time, people refused to just STFU and agree with me, so I'm going to follow them around whining FOREVAH!".

Schizoid PD of childhood onset is probably the same thing as AS for the most part, but that label seems to have vanished.

Schizoid PD could probably be seen as an adolescent onset ASD of some kind, albeit usually milder.

Anyway, Wing put it as this in the penultimate AS paper in the west:

She didn't put Avoidant PD as a differential.

From what I have read it certainly does have a large effect on thinking and perception.

It does - ideas of reference, magical thinking, formal thought disorder - which itself causes odd speech are all associated with schizotypal personality disorder. In addition, it has several traits in common with autism. The similarity with autism is actually significant, and the subject of much study.

In my first assessment report was written that per DSM-IV and ICD-10 I fulfil criteria to get assessed with schizoid disorder, schizotypal disorder, avoidant personality disorder (but it was written, that "not all difficulties patient has to face are merely explained by it") and the other difficulties are explained by autistic disorder (my axis 2 diagnosis) and I did not grow up in healthy environment what makes me believe that the other disorders may play into it as well,
because I do not like the thought that an autistic person has no personality or is completely unaffected by pathological circumstances.
In the later assessments there were no assessments for other disorders anymore, they were only directed on the autism, that were the formal assessments for disability, though severe complex PTSD was mentioned as well and severe executive dysfunction (but I am not assessed with ADHD, executive dysfunction is due to autism).

schizophrenia / schizotypal - social isolation + distortion of reality
schizoid (ICD) - social isolation + daydreaming
schizoid (DSM) - social isolation
PDD/NOS - several possibilities, but social isolation without narrow interests could be one
Autism/Asperger - social isolation + narrow interests

Probably there are many misdagnosis between all - after all, the fantasies of the schizo- could easily be considered a kind of narrow interests. Put it in other way, a person in the schizophrenia spectrum that knows that his fantasies are not real and a person in the autistic spectrum with a narrow interest of the intelectual type could be virtually undistingueble (both will be of the "absent-minded thinker" type).

And I had read somewhere that the ASD where is more common the appearence of schizophrenia or other type of psychosys is PDD/NOS; well, attending that the symptoms of schizoid personality in a child or a pre-adolescent will probably be identical to the symptoms needed for a diagnosis of PDD/NOS, there is a good reason to think that many people "with PDD/NOS" are in reality mis-diagnosed schizoids.