Part 2: The four pattern clusters
6 min read
My breakdown of the autism Princeton study... part 2
In my last post I talked about what the research did and didn't find. Particularly that it uncovered 4 pattern clusters (which people are calling "subtypes") in the autistic sample group.
I also explained why using the term "subtype" is causing confusion... because the patterns are not exclusively related to the traits of the condition itself. If you're interested in my explanation of that, you should go look for part 1. 🙂
But for this post, I'll share what patterns the researchers did find in their autistic sample group and how the patterns were grouped. As I mentioned, the study uncovered 4 pattern clusters.
Two of them included developmental delays and two didn't.
Interestingly, the two that did have developmental delays made up less than 30% of the total autistic sample group.
This is highly significant if you think about the way autism has historically been identified and diagnosed.
Because 20 or 30 years ago, developmental delays were what led someone to look into autism in the first place. So back then, the prevalence of developmental delays was significantly higher in diagnosed autistic children.
But now, it's looking like developmental delays are only found in about a third of those diagnosed with autism.
But I think that's a topic for another day. 🙂
For now, let's get into the features of the 4 pattern clusters identified in this study.
1. The first group, which represented about 37% of autistic individuals in the sample group, was called the Social and Behavioral Challenges group.
This group had noticeable social challenges and repetitive behaviors, but as I mentioned, generally did not have developmental delays.
They also found that this group was often diagnosed with co-occurring conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, OCD, etc.
2. The second group, which represented about 34% of the autistic sample group, was called the Moderate Challenges group.
I personally find this designation incredibly misleading because moderate usually means something in between mild and severe and I think the term does a significant disservice to people trying to understand how this group presented. But I digress.
The researchers noted that this group had all the core traits of autism, but that they were the least noticeable out of all the groups. This group also did not have developmental delays or co-occurring psychiatric conditions.
Ok, now for the two groups that presented with developmental delays...
3. The third group, which represented about 19% of the autistic sample group, was called the Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay group. "Mixed" refers to how the actual core traits of their autism showed up.
The researchers found that this group reached their developmental milestones, like walking and talking, later than the nonautistic sample group. In other words, had developmental delays.
They also found that this group didn't show signs of anxiety, depression or disruptive behaviors.
4. And finally, the last group identified, which represented about 10% of the autistic sample group, was called the Broadly Affected group.
They found this group to have more extreme and wide-ranging challenges related to their core traits of autism. They also found this group to have developmental delays and co-occurring psychiatric conditions like anxiety, depression and mood dysregulation.
The researchers also identified distinct biological and genetic patterns within each group. But I'll save delving into that for another post because it's by far the most confusing part of the research.
I also have MANY thoughts about these pattern clusters that I'd love to share... but I think that will have to be covered in a part 3 since this post is already extremely long. 😅
The study for reference…