background Increasing attention has arisen for autism spectrum disorders (asd) in adults, especially women. To ensure the specificity of the diagnostic process, careful consideration of the differential diagnosis is necessary, in order to optimise treatment.
aim To offer practical recommendations to increase the specificity of the diagnostic process for asd.
results The asd diagnoses of the three women were reconsidered and eventually removed in favor of new diagnoses, which opened the door to more suitable therapeutic possibilities.
conclusion The asd diagnoses of the three women must always be considered. During the diagnostic process, it must be considered whether there are distinctive symptoms of asd present that justify the need for an asd diagnosis, or whether the symptoms can be explained more suitably by another psychiatric disorder.