autistic adults more likely to experience hallucinations?

I've just come across a couple of articles in popular scientific journals that claim that autistic adults are three times more likely than allistic adults to experience hallucinations. This gives you a flavour:
https://neurodivergentinsights.com/hallucinations-and-autism/?srsltid=AfmBOoqWoWghLoQP1ZWb7x4fYgCXDAX9Ik4DU7G_oHxR0MgXm2TABIG5

This is by one of the researchers, back in 2017 when the research was published:
https://theconversation.com/autistic-people-are-three-times-more-likely-to-have-hallucinations-77337

I found this repeated within the health service when I googled and downloaded a document from Oxford NHS Trust as a typical example. It stated: Researchers have shown that people with Autism are up to 3 times more likely to have hallucinations. Often when people with autism hear voices, they are hearing their own thoughts spoken aloud in their head. And quoted the second article I linked to, which provided the link to the original research paper:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177804#sec002

Now, the scary thing for me is the number of autistic adults who were part of this study. It wasn't hundreds. It was 30, 7 of whom were women. Yet NHS trusts and articles in science=based media are circulating this without qualification. In my experience, basing 'facts' on one experiment involving only 23 men and 7 women would be regarded as dicey when applied to neurotypical adults. What do you think? Have you experienced such hallucinations? Is it common? 

I'll post the poster derived from the research in comments (as images and texts put a strain on the forum)

Parents
  • That sounds like a study that should lead to further studies not be used as a fact and basis for treatment.

    It also feels a little like gas-lighting and being told you are hallucinating and making things up, when it's just you have heightened regular senses and perhaps other keen senses that aren't understood but should be used for further study? Like those feeling like they are touched, has anyone actually studied that further to see if they were reacting to electro-magnetic fields or something like that? 

    It just feels like it's an excuse to tell someone who is autistic, 'don't believe yourself, you are probably just making it up'? It doesn't feel good at all.

Reply
  • That sounds like a study that should lead to further studies not be used as a fact and basis for treatment.

    It also feels a little like gas-lighting and being told you are hallucinating and making things up, when it's just you have heightened regular senses and perhaps other keen senses that aren't understood but should be used for further study? Like those feeling like they are touched, has anyone actually studied that further to see if they were reacting to electro-magnetic fields or something like that? 

    It just feels like it's an excuse to tell someone who is autistic, 'don't believe yourself, you are probably just making it up'? It doesn't feel good at all.

Children
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