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What does an AQ sore of 23 in an adult mean?

Nessie

Hi everyone. I'm new here, and I'm the wife of a person (they/them) who has been referred by a psychiatrist to take an autism test. They went into the appointment thinking they might have an anxiety disorder, so walking out of the appointment with a reference for an autism test was quite distressing for them. They have now taken the test and scored a 23, which I have heard is below average for an autism diagnosis but is still above average for men. They have over two weeks until the follow up appointment with the psychiatrist, so I was wondering if anyone here might be able to please help me understand what the 23 might actually mean for them? Whilst the referral to take the test was a complete surprise to them, having been with them for four years, it didn't actually surprise me, but since they only scored 23, I'm now second guessing what I thought I had perceived. Any advice/thoughts would be very much appreciated :) 

Parents

  • Hi Nessie.

    I'm guessing that they took the Autism Quotient 50-Item Scale (AQ50). Supposing that this is the case then 23 is slightly below the threshold score of 26 which indicates that you 'might be autistic'. All that the score of 23 means is that they are nearing the threshold for autistic characteristics but are currently at what is called a 'subclinical level'.

    Without the jargon 'subclinical' just means that the person has autistic traits but may not be clinically diagnosed; clinical diagnosis actually requires that these autistic traits are having a negative effect on the person's life (I find this problematic personally but I won't elaborate now). I would definitely second what Cullpepper said - this is not an exact science. 

    From this point, if your spouse is interested in finding out more then I would direct them toward some of the tests suggested on the Embrace Autism site (https://embrace-autism.com/autism-tests/). Even though it's long (240 questions), the Aspie Quiz could give them a detailed view about their autistic traits. 

    - Sp. Oc.

Reply

  • Hi Nessie.

    I'm guessing that they took the Autism Quotient 50-Item Scale (AQ50). Supposing that this is the case then 23 is slightly below the threshold score of 26 which indicates that you 'might be autistic'. All that the score of 23 means is that they are nearing the threshold for autistic characteristics but are currently at what is called a 'subclinical level'.

    Without the jargon 'subclinical' just means that the person has autistic traits but may not be clinically diagnosed; clinical diagnosis actually requires that these autistic traits are having a negative effect on the person's life (I find this problematic personally but I won't elaborate now). I would definitely second what Cullpepper said - this is not an exact science. 

    From this point, if your spouse is interested in finding out more then I would direct them toward some of the tests suggested on the Embrace Autism site (https://embrace-autism.com/autism-tests/). Even though it's long (240 questions), the Aspie Quiz could give them a detailed view about their autistic traits. 

    - Sp. Oc.

Children
  • in reply to SpaceOctopus

    Sorry, I should clarify that the cut off point (thanks to Kitsune for mentioning this) for the AQ-50 is in fact 32 - that is to say, approximately 80% of people who score 32 and above are autistic. Scores of around 26 indicate that you have enough autistic characteristics to warrant further assessment.