THOUGHT-DISORDER IN ASPERGER SYNDROME - COMPARISON WITH HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISM

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a pervasive developmental disorder generally regarded as a variant of autism. While it has been included in the IC D-10 and DSM-IV as a distinct diagnostic entity, it is still unclear t o what extent it differs from high-functioning autism (HFA). Persons w ith HFA have been reported to show a variety of deficits of thought pr ocesses. Abnormalities such as poor reality testing, perceptual distor tions, and areas of cognitive slippage have been described using the R orschach inkblot test (Dykens, Volkmar, & Glick, 1991). Since AS has b een conceptualized as a mild variant of autism, we hypothesized that p ersons with AS will have fewer abnormalities on the Rorschach test com pared to persons with HFA. To test this hypothesis, we compared 12 sub jects with AS (ICD-IO, 10 male, mean age = 12.2 +/- 3.3 years, mean fu ll-scale IQ = 99.6) with 8 subjects with HFA (ICD-10/DMS-III-R, 7 male , mean age = 12.2 +/- 3.8 years, mean full-scale IQ = 83.4) on the Ror schach test. AS subjects demonstrated a trend towards greater levels o f disorganized thinking than the HFA group. They were also more likely to be classified as ''Introversive'' suggesting that AS subjects may have more complex inner lives involving elaborate fantasies. Also AS s ubjects tended to be more focused on their internal experiences. Howev er, overall, the Rorschach test was not found to differentiate the two diagnostic groups on the majority of structural variables. Implicatio ns of these findings are discussed with regard to the diagnostic valid ity of Asperger syndrome.