Elevated parkinsonism symptoms in autism during middle and older adulthood are linked with psychosocial, physical health, and mental health outcomes

Abstract

Evidence is growing for a link between parkinsonism, or the motor symptoms associated with Parkinson's Disease and autism. However, research to date has yet to examine whether the presence of these motoric symptoms impacts critical adult outcomes in autism. Therefore, the current study utilized a screening measure to bifurcate a relatively large (n = 379) sample of middle and older age autistic adults (40–83 years) into parkinsonism screen positive (n = 119) versus parkinsonism screen negative (n = 260) groups in order to compare them on broad metrics of daily living skills and subjective quality of life as well as non-motoric features linked to parkinsonism, namely memory problems, sleep quality, and depression symptoms. Overall, co-occurring parkinsonism was linked with lower subjective quality of life, more memory problems, lower sleep quality, and greater depression symptoms in autistic adults. Taken together, these findings implicate an important co-occurring motoric phenotype in middle and older adulthood for autistic people that could have significant real-world impacts yet has been largely neglected in the extant literature to date.