Autistic Adults Experience Higher PTSD Symptoms Relating to Motor Vehicle Accidents than Non-Autistic Adults.

Autor: McDonnell CG; Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA. christina.mcdonnell@uwyo.edu., Kaya RA; Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA., Andrzejewski T; Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA., Batista SG; Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of autism and developmental disorders [J Autism Dev Disord] 2024 Dec 28. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 28.
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06687-7
Abstrakt: Purpose: Autistic adults experience high rates of traumatic events and PTSD. However, little work has evaluated motor vehicle accident (MVA) related trauma symptoms. The goal of this brief report was to provide pilot data characterizing MVA-related peritraumatic reactions, trauma symptoms, and rates of PTSD diagnosis and mental health service use among Autistic compared to non-autistic adults.
Method: Participants were 637 adults in the United States (276 Autistic, 361 non-autistic) who completed an online survey assessing MVA experiences. Participants provided information about peritraumatic reactions to the accident, and whether they were diagnosed with PTSD or sought mental health services relating to the MVA. Participants also completed the Posttraumatic Symptom Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in relation to the worst MVA experienced.
Results: 48.7% of Autistic adults had experienced an MVA relative to 64.5% of non-autistic adults. Of those who experienced an MVA, Autistic adults reported higher peritraumatic dissociative reactions, and higher MVA-related total, negative mood/cognition, and hypervigilance PTSD symptoms than non-autistic adults, when adjusting for covariates. Autistic adults were significantly more likely to have sought mental health treatment relating to the MVA (11.9% compared to 0.9% of non-autistic adults), and to have received a PTSD diagnosis relating to the MVA (5.9% compared to 0.4% of non-autistic adults).
Conclusion: Autistic adults reported higher levels of trauma-related sequalae in response to MVAs than non-autistic adults. Future research should examine MVA-related trauma in more diverse samples, and develop assessment and support strategies to better identify, prevent, and reduce trauma-related symptoms post MVAs for Autistic people.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics Approval: This study received IRB approval from Virginia Tech (20–860) and was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. Informed Consent: All participants provided informed consent. Competing Interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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