Cardiff Researchers Develop Test to Aid in Autism Diagnosis

Cardiff University researchers have developed a test to measure how adults are affected by repetitive behaviors, in an effort to diagnose autism.

Cardiff autism experts teamed with experts from La Trobe University in Australia to test 229 participants.

The researchers from Wales say the test is a reliable method of measuring behaviors to indicate if they could be linked to autism. Adults not diagnosed with autism showed a high tendency for repetitive behaviors, but those diagnosed with autism consistently scored higher on this measure.

While the test cannot diagnose autism because repetitive behaviors are common with other diseases, it has been designed to help clinicians in the diagnosis process. The next phase of research will be to expand the trial to people of all ages with autism before implementing its use in clinics across the United Kingdom. — John Bechtel