Westwood H, et al. – The authors wished to clarify the link between symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and performance on measures of set-shifting and central coherence in a sample of females with anorexia nervosa (AN). They suggested that the presence of symptoms linked with ASD seems to be related to increased cognitive rigidity in females with AN.

Methods

• For this study, 99 females aged 12 to 47, enlisted from inpatient and day patient eating disorder services, were surveyed with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2), as well as the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, 2nd edition (WASI-II); Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST); Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) and self-report questionnaires assessing eating disorder pathology, depression, cognitive rigidity and attention to detail. 

Results

• The present study showed that individuals scoring above clinical cut-off on the ADOS-2 (N=35) reported significantly higher levels of cognitive rigidity as compared to those with lower levels of ASD symptoms, however, there was no difference between groups on self-reported attention to detail.
• There group with high levels of ASD symptoms also made significantly more perseverative errors on the WCST but there was no relationship between ASD symptoms and performance on the ROCFT.
• Findings revealed that the group who scored above cut-off on the ADOS-2 were significantly younger as compared to the sub-clinical groups.