Missed diagnosis of autism in an Australian indigenous psychiatric population

The aim of this paper is to review the diagnosis among adult Indigenous patients from the Kimberley region of Western Australia who had an existing diagnosis of schizophrenia. A visit from a psychiatrist specializing in intellectual disability provided the opportunity for conducting psychiatric assessments from a developmental perspective.

Selected patients with schizophrenia were assessed from an intellectual disability perspective from an active case load of 215 patients.

Thirteen out of 14 selected patients were considered to have a diagnosis of autism when a developmental history was undertaken. Case studies are presented to illustrate the overlap in symptoms and potential for the diagnosis of autism to be missed.

Autism spectrum disorders may be missed in Indigenous population groups. This has implications for treatment and service provision. Clinicians need to be mindful of the diagnostic possibility that an autism spectrum disorder might be masquerading as schizophrenia in the context of intellectual disability and atypical presentation.