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Brief Report: Asperger’s Syndrome and Sibling Birth Order

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Abstract

Prior investigations suggest that birth order position may be associated with the risk for developing a pervasive developmental disorder. This retrospective chart review examined the birth order status of 29 psychiatrically-referred patients with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). Eighty-six percent of the subjects were first born. The finding was statistically significant when compared to an expected random distribution of AS subjects χ2 (1, N = 29) = 9.18, p < 0.01. The reasons for such an association are unclear though birth stoppage, obstetric complications, and immunological mechanisms may play a role.

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Conflict of interest

This project was funded under partial support from the Casa Colina Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Jacob Venter

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Karmen Schmidt, Andrew Zimmerman, Margaret Bauman & Christine Ferrone

  2. Evaluation, Measurement, and Research Department, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Jessaca Spybrook

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Jacob Venter & Charles Henry

  4. The Lurie Center 1 Maguire Rd., Lexington, MA, 02421, USA

    Charles Henry

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  1. Karmen Schmidt
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Correspondence to Charles Henry.

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Schmidt, K., Zimmerman, A., Bauman, M. et al. Brief Report: Asperger’s Syndrome and Sibling Birth Order. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 973–977 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1620-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1620-y

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