Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) said that the essential features of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are persistent impairment in reciprocal social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. ASD is pointed out that biological factors are related to brain features. Therefore, individuals with ASD are called atypical development. One of theories to explain ASD is Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) theory, which is supported by many researchers. Based on the E-S theory, the empathy quotient (EQ) and the systemizing quotient (SQ) have been developed as instruments to measure empathy and systematization. According to the E-S theory, individuals can be classified into 5 major brain types. They can be divided by the balance of EQ and SQ scores. 5 brain types are the Empathizing brain type (Type E), the Systemizing brain type (Type S), the Balanced brain type (Type B), the extreme of Type E, and the extreme of Type S. It is reported that individuals with ASD are strongly systematized, and there are many people with Extreme of Type S. Meanwhile, as adolescents with ASD are increasing in medical settings, grasping the characteristics of adolescents with ASD is useful for nursing at adolescent psychiatric wards. The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of brain type of adolescents with ASD.
Methods:
Subjects
11 subjects who were inpatients at the adolescent psychiatry in Japan were recruited in the present study. They were children with ASD and from 7th-grade to 12th-grade.
Survey method
It was investigated with Japanese version of EQ-SQ. Gender and grade were gathered from medical records. EQ - SQ was scored, and the brain type was categorized with reference to previous studies. Survey period was from November 2016 to August 2017.
Ethical consideration
This study was approved by Ethics Committee of University of Tsukuba Faculty of Medicine, and Research Facility. Informed consent was obtained from participants and their guardian caregivers before the initiation of any research procedures.
Results:
The subjects are 5 junior high school students and 6 high school students, 6 boys and 5 girls. The execution time of EQ-SQ was 19.18 minutes on average (SD = 8.98; range 9 ～34). The brain types are 7 Type S, 2 Type E, and 2 Type B.
Previous studies have reported that many individuals with ASD are the extreme Type S, but in this study there were no extreme Type S. In addition, not only there were many type S, there were also children with type E and type B. It seemed that adolescents with ASD had brain characteristics different from those of adults with ASD. This suggests that the type of brain may differ from adults with ASD, even if they are diagnosed with ASD, because symptoms vary at adolescence. Therefore, evaluating the type of brain using EQ - SQ seemed to be useful in considering nursing intervention. It was suggested that adolescents with ASD need different ways of association with adults with ASD.
Conclusion:
Adolescents with ASD were different in brain types from adults with ASD.