Abstract
BackgroundAutism is not a discreet condition and those families members with autistic propend are more likely to display autistic symptoms with a wide range of severity, even below the threshold for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Even with a parental history of schizophrenia, the likelihood of autistic spectrum disorder was found to be 3-fold greater. The aim of this study is to assess autistic traits among offspring of schizophrenic patients in the age group from 4 to 11 years and compare it in the offspring of normal individuals, and its association with the sociodemographic data. To determine whether schizophrenic parents are a risk factor to autistic traits in their children.ResultsThere was a statistically significant (P < 0.05*) increase in Autism Quotient Child scores of the case group where 47.2% had a score equal or more than the cutoff point (76), while only 17 19.4% of the control group had the same score with odds = 3.71 indicating that children of schizophrenic parents 18 were three times likely to have Autism Quotient-Child score greater than or equal to the cutoff point (76) than 19 children of healthy parents. No statistically significant association (P ≥ 0.05) was found between all 20 sociodemographic characteristics and Autism Quotient-Child scores among the case group except for family 21 income and social class where there was a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between insufficient income 22 and low social class and higher Autism Quotient-Child score (≥ 76).ConclusionsChildren of schizophrenic parents are at high risk to have autistic traits than children of normal parents.
Highlights
Autism is not a discreet condition and those families members with autistic propend are more likely to display autistic symptoms with a wide range of severity, even below the threshold for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders
A total of 72 children were included in this research who are divided into two groups: a case group composed of 36 children with only one schizophrenic parent and a control group composed of 36 children with healthy parents
On comparing Autism Quotient-Child scores among the studied groups, we found there is a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05*) between the two groups where (47.2%) of the case group had score equal or more than the cutoff point (76) and only (19.4%) of the control group had the same score with odds = 3.71 indicating that children of schizophrenic parents were nearly four times (OR = 3.71) more likely to have autistic traits than children of healthy parents (Table 3)
Summary
Autism is not a discreet condition and those families members with autistic propend are more likely to display autistic symptoms with a wide range of severity, even below the threshold for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Studies among unaffected first-degree relatives of ASD patients firstly identified, the sub-threshold “Autistic Traits” (ATs) (mild in severity and the same clinical manifestations of ASD) [8, 35]. They were found to be spread among the general population and high-risk groups [20, 51].
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