Anxiety common in adults with ASD, may increase over time

Anxiety is common in adults with autism, and researchers in the United Kingdom report that it may worsen over time.

Aphrodite Eshetu and colleagues analyzed data collected from 5,270 adults between 50 and 91 years of age. They followed participants for eight years, annually assessing their autistic traits and general anxiety symptoms.

“A trait-based approach offers a valuable alternative to diagnosis-based recruitment,” the researchers say, “particularly in midlife and older populations where autism is frequently under-recognized or misdiagnosed. This approach allows researchers to identify people with elevated autistic traits and characteristics who may not have received a formal diagnosis, thus capturing a broader and potentially more representative sample of autistic adults.”

Using a method called growth mixture modeling, the researchers identified three distinct groups. The first group, comprising more than 85 percent of participants, had very low levels of anxiety that remained stable over the course of the study. The second group, around 12 percent of participants, had slightly higher but still low levels of anxiety that stayed stable over time. The third group, comprising two percent of participants, experienced anxiety that increased over the course of the study, from mild to clinically significant levels.

The researchers found that adults with high autistic traits were more than four times more likely than other participants to develop clinically significant anxiety over time. They were also twice as likely to experience persistent low-level anxiety.

The researchers say factors that could cause increasing anxiety as people with autistic traits age include social isolation, greater exposure to stress or trauma, and barriers to health care. They comment, “Given the detrimental consequences of chronic anxiety for physical and mental health, these findings highlight the need for increased, tailored support for adults on the autism spectrum.”

Citations

“The association between autistic traits and trajectories of anxiety in middle-aged and older adults: an 8-year growth mixture model analysis,” Aphrodite Eshetu, Saloni Ghai, Anne Corbett, Clive Ballard, Adam Hampshire, Elizabeth O’Nions, William Mandy, Joshua Stott, Amber John, and Gavin R. Stewart, Nature Mental Health, June 1, 2026 (free online). Address: Joshua Stott, [email protected], or Gavin Stewart, [email protected].