Autism and schizophrenia are now viewed as two distinct mental health disorders, and autism is not included in the description of schizophrenia in the fifth edition of “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses,” the American Psychiatric Association’s professional reference book on mental health and brain-related conditions. But the authors of a lengthy opinion piece in The Lancet Psychiatry argue it is important to “rediscover what autism in schizophrenia is,” partly because people with schizophrenia who exhibit autistic features can be misdiagnosed as having autistic spectrum disorder and, therefore, receive inadequate treatment.

“Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder have not ceased to exhibit autistic features just because the concept of autism fell out of the sc

See Full Page