Autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorder: phenomenological qualitative study of patients' experience.
Frontiers in psychiatry January 1, 2025 Aleksandra Jeličić, Maja Drobnič Radobuljac, Louis Sass et al. 1 citation
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) often show similar social difficulties, leading to misdiagnosis. This study used in-depth phenomenological interviews with 42 participants aged 15 to 26, all with at least average intelligence and no acute psychiatric symptoms, to compare their subjective experiences. The SSD group showed higher levels of minimal self-disorder, demarcation phenomena, paranoid anxiety, short-term memory disorder, and magical thinking. Both groups overlapped in obsessive thinking, attention problems, diminished presence in the world, social anxiety, and hyper-reflectivity. The findings suggest that a disorder of ipseity (the sense of self) is central to SSD, while a disorder of primary intersubjectivity is central to ASD.