What Did We Do
Sign up for research updates!
We would love to keep you updated with our findings. Enter your email address below to get a summary of our findings once they are published. To find out how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy.
Enter your email
Study 1
Highlights
-
We wanted to find out:
1.
Could problems with autism and personality disorder assessment tools contribute to autism being missed and to misdiagnosis with personality disorder?
2.
What are the similarities and differences in how autistic people and people with a ‘personality disorder’ diagnosis experience their emotions and their relationships and interactions with other people?
-
We investigated this by asking:
1.
15 women/AFAB (assigned female at birth) people with a personality disorder diagnosis who did not have an autism diagnosis and did not believe themselves to be autistic
2.
13 women/AFAB people diagnosed or self-identifying as autistic, who had never had a personality disorder diagnosis and did not believe themselves to have a personality disorder
3.
13 women/AFAB people with a personality disorder diagnosis who were also diagnosed or self-identified as autistic
to:
1.
complete brief questionnaires designed to assess the likelihood that they meet diagnostic criteria for autism or personality disorder
2.
take part in diagnostic interviews to give a more detailed and definitive assessment of whether they meet diagnostic criteria for autism or personality disorder
3.
give detailed feedback on their experiences of filling out the autism and personality disorder questionnaires
4.
take part in an in-depth interview about their personality, thoughts, feelings and behaviours in different situations.
Click here for more detailed information
Study 2
Highlights
-
We wanted to understand people’s experiences of being diagnosed with ‘personality disorder’ and seeking an autism diagnosis.
-
We did this by asking the following groups of people to take part in semi-structured interviews:
1.
15 women/AFAB people with a pre-existing personality disorder diagnosis who had since been diagnosed or self-identified as autistic, or who thought they might be autistic.
2.
15 clinicians who worked in services providing care for autistic people and/or people with ‘personality disorder’.
For our lived experience group, this was to help us understand how their diagnosis came about and why they felt autism may fit with their understanding of themselves. For clinicians, this was around what helped them in differentiating these two diagnoses and what would make this an easier process.
Click here for more detailed information
Study 3
Highlights
-
We wanted to evaluate the similarities and differences in how autistic people and people meeting diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder:
-
experience and regulate their emotions.
2. interact and relate with other people.
3. experience their identity and self-concept.
4. may react to sensory input e.g. sounds, smells.
5. may use repetitive movements.
6. may have strict preferences for sticking to familiar ways of doing things.
7. may have been affected by past traumatic experiences.
-
We did this by asking the following groups of people to complete online questionnaires:
1.
51 women/AFAB people (assigned female at birth) diagnosed with and meeting diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder who were very unlikely to be autistic.
2.
51 women/AFAB people with an autism diagnosis who were very unlikely to meet diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder.
3.
32 women/AFAB people with an autism diagnosis and a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.
Click here for more detailed information
Find out more!
We are dedicated to enhancing our web design and content. Please provide your rating for this page to help us understand what we're doing well and where we can improve. To find out how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy.
We are conducting an exciting research study and would love to keep you updated with our findings. Enter your email address below to get a summary of our findings once they are published. To find out how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy.