Abstract
We developed a brief, informant-report interview for assessing autism spectrum conditions (ASC) in adults, called the Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview-Adult Version (3Di-Adult); and completed a preliminary evaluation. Informant reports were collected for participants with ASC (n = 39), a non-clinical comparison group (n = 29) and a clinical comparison group (n = 20) who had non-autistic mental health conditions. Mean administration time was 38 min (50 min for ASC). Internal consistency (αs ≥ 0.93) and inter-rater agreement (ICCs ≥ 0.99) were high. When discriminating ASC from non-ASC, the 3Di-Adult showed excellent sensitivity (95%) and specificity (92%). The 3Di-Adult shows promise as a psychometrically sound and time-efficient interview for collecting standardised informant reports for DSM-5 assessments of ASC in adults, in research and clinical practice.
Highlights
Undiagnosed adults are at high risk of experiencing functional and emotional difficulties as a result of their Autism spectrum condition (ASC) (Lai and Baron-Cohen 2015)
We suggest that the use of ‘ASC’ conveys that people on the autism spectrum show differences that include strengths as well as difficulties
Interviews were usually carried out over the telephone (80% of National Health Service (NHS) current attenders/Autism Imaging Multicentre Study (AIMS) ASC group, 85% of non-clinical comparison group, and 85% of clinical comparison group)
Summary
Simon Baron-Cohen and David Skuse are joint last authors. Autism spectrum condition (ASC) ( known as ‘autism spectrum disorder’1) is an early-onset neuro developmental syndrome that affects approximately 1% of the population, characterised by lifelong difficulties with social communication, social reciprocity, flexibility and sensory processing (American Psychiatric Association 2013). A substantial proportion of people with ASC, especially those with fluent language and normal-range IQ, are not identified in childhood, and enter adulthood without a diagnosis (Baron-Cohen et al 2009; Lai and Baron-Cohen 2015). Undiagnosed adults are at high risk of experiencing functional and emotional difficulties as a result of their ASC (Lai and Baron-Cohen 2015). Autistic people who were only diagnosed with ASC after they had entered
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