Anxiety and paranoid ideation in Asperger's syndrome

Background : Epidemiological studies of psychiatric co-morbidity in Asperger’s syndrome [AS] indicate depression, anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder as being diagnosable more often than for the general population and represent substantial morbidity (Gillberg & Billstedt, 2000), with up to 7% of individuals with AS having an anxiety disorder. Similarly, persecutory and passivity delusions and delusions of reference also identified in AS (Clarke et al 1999). However, there have been few attempts to develop the types of powerful cognitive behavioural models of such psychopathology as has been achieved to good effect in the non-AS population
Objectives: To review relevant psychological research on anxiety and delusional beliefs in AS to enable the development of an integrative cognitive model of clinical utility
Methods: Five research studies examining anxiety and delusional beliefs in AS (Blackshaw et al 2001; Craig et al 2004; Meraj & Hare 2004; Abell & Hare 2005; Hembry, Harrop & Hare 2007) were identified.

Results: An integrative cognitive model was developed, based on that of Abell & Hare (2005), and tested against available data.

Conclusions: An integrative cognitive-behavioural model of anxiety and delusional beliefs appears to be both feasible and of clinical and experimental utility