Background: Based on clinical experience there is a discrepancy between the educational records and vocational performance in patients with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Method: In order to assess psychosocial and vocational specificities of adult ASD patients we analyzed the demographic and hospital data of consecutively diagnosed patients employing descriptive statistics.
Results: We were able to include 255 patients into our sample who were consecutively diagnosed between October 2009 and October 2011. The gender ratio was 162:93 in favor of male patients. The educational records of our patient sample was comparatively good [50 % highest level of German schooling system (allgemeine Hochschulreife), 39 % university degree], however, the vocational records were poor with 58 % of our patients being unemployed. The psychiatric comorbidity was high, 57 % of the patients suffered from depression.
Conclusion: There is a high need for special support programs for adult high functioning ASD patients focusing on adaptive vocational skills to avoid unemployment and secondary psychiatric problems.
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.