WSJ: Screwball Moms cause autism

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Mental Disorders in Parents Linked to Autism in Kids

By Bernstein in the Wall Street Journal

http://tinyurl.com/6yp8cs

Parents of children with autism are about twice as likely to

have been hospitalized for mental disorders than parents of other

kids, says a study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Depression and personality disorders were more common among

mothers but not fathers of autistic kids. The researchers found that

schizophrenia was about twice as common in both mothers and fathers of

children with autism.

The link between parental disorders and a child's autism was

present regardless of whether the parent was diagnosed before or after

the child. This pattern suggests that the association may be genetic,

not a matter of a parent getting depressed over a child's diagnosis.

The work confirms earlier findings that showed psychiatric

disorders are more common among family members of people with autism.

A history of schizophrenia-like psychosis or affective disorder in a

parent, for instance, sharply increases the odds of autism for a

child, a previous analysis of Danish health records showed. But the

latest study goes further by distinguishing between the linked

illnesses from mothers or fathers, the researchers says.

Overall, the findings suggest " a mental illness trend in

families, " said s, lead researcher on the study and an

epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

" It's a genetic predisposition for some kind of psychiatric

disposition. And it presents differently in the parent and the child

because of other genes or other environmental factors, " she told the

Health Blog.

The researchers–from UNC, in conjunction with Karolinska

Institute in Stockholm— analyzed Swedish birth and hospital records

for 1,327 children with autism born between 1977 and 2003 and their

parents. They compared these records with those of more than 30,000

control subjects. The analysis was possible because Sweden assigns a

national registration number to all residents that's used in multiple

registries.

Because the study looked only at children and parents who had

received a diagnosis during a hospitalization, and so had pretty

severe cases of their disorders, the results may not be easily

generalized. But the findings do support the theory that there's a

familial predisposition for autism.