3-generation family histories of mental, neurologic, cardiometabolic, birth defect, asthma, allergy, and autoimmune conditions associated with autism: An open-source catalog of findings.
Diana Schendel, Linda Ejlskov, Morten Overgaard and 9 others
PMID 39283002WHAT IT FOUND
Autism risk was linked to family histories of mental disorders across all relatives, and to nonmental conditions like asthma or diabetes specifically in mothers and maternal relatives.
This catalog offers therapists a reference for identifying associated familial health patterns.
Key findings
01Family history of mental disorders was associated with autism in relatives of all degrees of relatedness, with 70% to 99% of these associations having confidence intervals that excluded the null value.
02For nonmental conditions, associations with autism were more frequent when the affected relative was the mother rather than the father, or on the maternal side of the family.
03When accounting for intellectual disability in the affected family member, the strength of the association with autism in the child generally remained the same or was reduced.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not correct for multiple testing, meaning some significant associations could be spurious. Diagnoses were based on specialist evaluations in Danish registries, so conditions diagnosed only by general practitioners were missed. The analysis did not account for the timing of family members' diagnoses, such as whether a maternal condition was present during pregnancy. Results are most generalizable to populations where specialist-determined diagnoses are standard.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these associations as causal links that dictate clinical management. The study is observational and designed for hypothesis generation, so finding a maternal autoimmune history does not confirm it caused the child's autism.