Autism
Conditions
Interventions
The psycho-education intervention consists of education in detection and 
diagnosis of ASD in older adults for mental health professionals and of an 
adapted PE program for older adults with a late (probability) diagnosis of ASD. The 
psycho-education program consists of eight, two hour group meetings on a weekly 
basis. 
The content of the adaptations to the PE course is based on the findings of our 
earlier exploratory study of psychoeducation for older people with a late 
diagnosis of autism (Lenders et al., 2024), years of experience with the 
current course at five institutions that offer this course to older people with 
a recent diagnosis of autism, meetings with experience volunteers, and meetings 
with the current trainers at the organizations involved.
Sponsors
Universiteit van Tilburg
Eligibility
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Older adults aged 55 and older with an ASD diagnosis or probability diagnosis made by a multidisciplinary team according to the Dutch multidisciplinary guidelines, as confirmed by the DSM-5 interview for ASD (Spek, n.d.), or the Netherlands Interview for Diagnosis of ASD in adults (NIDA; Vuijk, 2016).
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Exclusion criteria in the first place apply to participation in the PE course. And thus make participation in the study impossible. This concerns: - Comorbid mental disorder that needs acute treatment and severely interferes with a group treatment (for example psychosis). - major neurocognitive disorder (for example dementia or acquired brain injury). - Substance abuse disorder, that requires detoxification. - Insufficient command of the Dutch language. - And/or an IQ below 70. These exclusion criteria are assessed by clinical consensus after extensive psychiatric and psychological assessment by the multiple disciplinary team of the participating centers. The trainers of the intervention will also judge the presence of exclusion criteria for participants and informants at the start of the intervention during an intake session, which is part of the intervention.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Clinical outcomes, which are quality of life, acceptance of diagnosis, knowledge of ASD, recognition of ASD traits, coping with ASD, autistic traits, resilience and comorbid psychological symptoms. * Quality of life is assessed with the Mental Health Quality of Life Questionnaire (MHQoL-7). * Acceptance of diagnosis, knowledge and coping with ASD are assessed by both patients and informants from their environment using the Knowledge, Recognition and Acceptance in Autism Diagnosis Questionnaire (VKHAA and VKHAA-N). * Acceptance of ASD (-diagnosis) is further assessed with the Acceptance Questionnaire. * Autistic characteristics are assessed (hetero-)anamnestically with the Social Responsiveness Scale-Adults (SRS-A). * Comorbid psychological distress is assessed with the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). All these assessments are conducted (1) at baseline (after diagnosis and informed consent); (2) before the patient begins PE (on average, three months after baseline; participants in the control condition receive this measurement three months after baseline; (3) after PE (on average, two months after the start of the PE program; participants in the control condition receive this measurement 5 months after baseline); (4) at 9-month follow-up (nine months after the second measurement). Experiences with the course will be explored with two items from the VKHAA and the VKHAA-N (items 26 and 27) as well as through 10 to 15 semistructured interviews with patients after their course participation. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The number and proportion of ASD diagnoses in the participating centres (collected from the information and registration systems of the mental health care centres) from one years before, during the project, and at one year follow-up. Quality of psychodiagnostics with regard to ASD is explored on the basis of the psychodiagnostical reports that are the result of the examination into ASD. | — |
Countries
Netherlands
Contacts
Public ContactI.C. Verbeek
Universiteit van Tilburg
Outcome results
None listed