Family history of psychiatric conditions and development of siblings of children with autism.
Giselle Bellia, Joseph Chang, Zeyan Liew and 4 others
PMID 38896553WHAT IT FOUND
In siblings of children with autism, family history of anxiety or schizophrenia was linked to higher autistic social features.
Intellectual disability, anxiety or bipolar disorder were linked to lower IQ or adaptive scores. Depression was linked to higher IQ and communication.
Key findings
01Siblings with a family history of anxiety or schizophrenia had autistic social feature scores 0.92 and 1.82 points higher on a scale from 0 to 10.
02Family history of intellectual disability or anxiety was linked with lower verbal IQ by 16 and 13 points and lower nonverbal IQ by 12 and 8 points on a scale with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15.
03Family history of depression was associated with higher verbal and nonverbal IQ by 10 and 7 points, and higher adaptive communication by 6 points.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Family history came from one parent interview, so conditions in more distant relatives may have been under-reported. Family history was scored as present or absent regardless of which relative had the condition or how many relatives were affected, so the study cannot show how family size or closeness of relation affected outcomes. The sample was mostly White and non-Hispanic and skewed toward college-educated parents, so the findings may not apply to more diverse families. Participation may have been influenced by family characteristics, such as anxious parents or parents of children with more delays being more likely to enroll. Outcomes were measured at an average age of 64 months, and IQ analyses included 222 children with valid IQ data; 44% of IQ data came from DAS-III and 56% from Mullen developmental quotient scores. Because this was an observational study of associations, it cannot show that any family history condition caused the sibling's outcome.
Declared interests
The paper lists non-U.S. government and NIH extramural research support, but no author conflict-of-interest declaration is included.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these family history links as proof that anxiety, schizophrenia, intellectual disability, bipolar disorder or depression causes a sibling's outcome. The study only reported associations in siblings of children with autism, and some effects were small or imprecise.