Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.

The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians

Simon Baron‐Cohen, Sally Wheelwright, Richard Skinner, Joanne Martin, Emma Clubley

The study introduced the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a short self-test that gives a score from 0 to 50 to measure autistic traits in adults with normal intelligence. The researchers tested four groups (58 adults with Asperger/high-functioning autism; 174 random controls; 840 Cambridge students; and 16 math Olympiad winners) and found…

Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Child Development and Digital Technology Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R): A Scale to Assist the Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adults: An International Validation Study

Riva Ariella Ritvo, Edward Ritvo, Donald Guthrie, Max J. Ritvo, Demetra Hufnagel, William McMahon, et al.

Researchers tested the 80-question Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R) in 779 adults at nine centers on three continents. The tool showed large score differences between 201 people with confirmed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and 578 comparison participants, and the authors concluded it is a useful tool to help clinicians…

Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Child Development and Digital Technology Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy Scale

Jack D. Brett, David A. Preece, Rodrigo Becerra, Andrew Whitehouse, Murray T. Maybery

The present study highlights that the PES is suitable for assessing empathy across autistic and non-autistic individuals. This work with the PES also provides greater nuance to our understanding of empathy and autism, and based on these findings, we propose the empathy heterogeneity hypothesis of autism as a new way…

Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Child Development and Digital Technology Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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