[Well Educated Unemployed--On Education, Employment and Comorbidities in Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders in Germany].

BACKGROUND

Based on clinical experience there is a discrepancy between the educational records and vocational performance in patients with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHOD: In order to assess psychosocial and vocational specificities of adult ASD patients we analyzed the demographic and hospital data of consecutively diagnosed patients employing descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

We were able to include 255 patients into our sample who were consecutively diagnosed between October 2009 and October 2011. The gender ratio was 162:93 in favor of male patients. The educational records of our patient sample was comparatively good [50 % highest level of German schooling system (allgemeine Hochschulreife), 39 % university degree], however, the vocational records were poor with 58 % of our patients being unemployed. The psychiatric comorbidity was high, 57 % of the patients suffered from depression.

CONCLUSION

There is a high need for special support programs for adult high functioning ASD patients focusing on adaptive vocational skills to avoid unemployment and secondary psychiatric problems.