Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Association of Autism Spectrum Disorder with Obsessive-Compulsive and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Traits and Response Inhibition in a Community Sample

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examined co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with (traits of) attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive (OCD) and inhibition deficits in a community sample (n = 16,676) and tested whether having a sibling with ASD manifested in increased features of ADHD, OCD or inhibition deficits. Individuals with ASD had increased ADHD and OCD traits compared with individuals without ASD. Individuals with a sibling with ASD exhibited more ADHD traits than did individuals whose sibling did not have ASD. The “sibling effect” on manifestation of ADHD traits was observed in individuals with and without ASD. Having a sibling with ASD did not affect OCD traits. Inhibition was impaired in individuals with ASD who had a sibling with ASD only.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fourth Edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) (Vol. 1). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association. doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Arnett, A. B., Pennington, B. F., Friend, A., Willcutt, E. G., Byrne, B., Samuelsson, S., & Olson, R. K. (2013). The SWAN captures variance at the negative and positive ends of the ADHD symptom dimension. Journal of Attention Disorders, 17(2), 152–162. doi:10.1177/1087054711427399.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bamber, D., Tamplin, A., Park, R. J., Kyte, Z. A., & Goodyer, I. M. (2002). Development of a short leyton obsessional inventory for children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(10), 1246–1252. doi:10.1097/00004583-200210000-00015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Banaschewski, T., Neale, B. M., Rothenberger, A., & Roessner, V. (2007). Comorbidity of tic disorders & ADHD: Conceptual and methodological considerations. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 16(Suppl 1), 5–14. doi:10.1007/s00787-007-1002-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berg, C. Z., Whitaker, A., Davies, M., Flament, M. F., & Rapoport, J. L. (1988). The survey form of the Leyton Obsessional Inventory-Child Version: Norms from an epidemiological study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(6), 759–763. doi:10.1097/00004583-198811000-00017.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, S. A. (2009). Rethinking environmental contributions to child and adolescent psychopathology: A meta-analysis of shared environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin, 135(4), 608–637. doi:10.1037/a0015702.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burton, C. L., Crosbie, J., Dupuis, A., Mathews, C. A., Soreni, N., Schachar, R., & Arnold, P. D. (2016). Clinical correlates of hoarding with and without comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a community pediatric sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(2), 114–121.e2. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2015.11.014.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caron, C., & Rutter, M. (1991). Comorbidity in child psychopathology: Concepts, issues and research strategies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 32(7), 1063–1080.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2006). Gene-environment interactions in psychiatry: Joining forces with neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(7), 583–590. doi:10.1038/nrn1925.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, P., & Cohen, J. (1984). The clinician’s illusion. Archives of General Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1984.01790230064010.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crosbie, J., Arnold, P., Paterson, A., Swanson, J., Dupuis, A., Li, X., et al. (2013). Response inhibition and ADHD traits: Correlates and heritability in a community sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41(3), 497–507. doi:10.1007/s10802-012-9693-9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Crosbie, J., Pérusse, D., Barr, C. L., & Schachar, R. (2008). Validating psychiatric endophenotypes: Inhibitory control and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 40–55. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.05.002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galbaud du Fort, G., Newman, S. C., & Bland, R. C. (1993). Psychiatric comorbidity and treatment seeking. Sources of selection bias in the study of clinical populations. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181(8), 467–474. http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=med3&NEWS=N&AN=8360638

  • Geller, D. A., Biederman, J., Faraone, S. V., Cradock, K., Hagermoser, L., Zaman, N., et al. (2002). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Fact or artifact? Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(1), 52–58. doi:10.1097/00004583-200201000-00011.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, D. A., Biederman, J., Griffin, S., Jones, J., & Lefkowitz, T. R. (1996). Comorbidity of juvenile obsessive-compulsive disorder with disruptive behavior disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35(12), 1637–1646. doi:10.1097/00004583-199612000-00016.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jacob, S., Landeros-Weisenberger, A., & Leckman, J. F. (2009). Autism spectrum and obsessive-compulsive disorders: OC behaviors, phenotypes and genetics. Autism Research: Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2(6), 293–311. doi:10.1002/aur.108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenward, M. G., & Roger, J. H. (1997). Small sample inference for fixed effects from restricted maximum likelihood. Biometrics, 53(3), 983–997.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lakes, K. D., Swanson, J. M., & Riggs, M. (2012). The reliability and validity of the English and Spanish strengths and weaknesses of ADHD and Normal Behavior Rating Scales in a preschool sample: Continuum measures of hyperactivity and inattention. Journal of Attention Disorders, 16(6), 510–516. doi:10.1177/1087054711413550.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leekam, S. R., Prior, M. R., & Uljarevic, M. (2011). Restricted and repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders: A review of research in the last decade. Psychological Bulletin, 137(4), 562–593. doi:10.1037/a0023341.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leyfer, O. T., Folstein, S. E., Bacalman, S., Davis, N. O., Dinh, E., Morgan, J., et al. (2006). Comorbid psychiatric disorders in children with autism: Interview development and rates of disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(7), 849–861. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0123-0.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, P., Carlström, E., Råstam, M., Gillberg, C., & Anckarsäter, H. (2010). The genetics of autism spectrum disorders and related neuropsychiatric disorders in childhood. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(11), 1357–1363. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10020223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lionel, A. C., Crosbie, J., Barbosa, N., Goodale, T., Thiruvahindrapuram, B., Rickaby, J., et al. (2011). Rare copy number variation discovery and cross-disorder comparisons identify risk genes for ADHD. Science Translational Medicine, 3(95), 95ra75. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3002464.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lionel, A. C., Tammimies, K., Vaags, A. K., Rosenfeld, J. A., Ahn, J. W., Merico, D., et al. (2013). Disruption of the ASTN2/TRIM32 locus at 9q33.1 is a risk factor in males for Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Human Molecular Genetics, 23(10), 1–17. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddt669.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipszyc, J., & Schachar, R. (2010). Inhibitory control and psychopathology: A meta-analysis of studies using the stop signal task. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 16(6), 1064–1076. doi:10.1017/S1355617710000895.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Logan, G. D., Schachar, R. J., & Tannock, R. (1997). Impulsivity and inhibitory control. Psychological Science, 8(1), 60–64. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00545.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahone, E. M., Powell, S. K., Loftis, C. W., Goldberg, M. C., Denckla, M. B., & Mostofsky, S. H. (2006). Motor persistence and inhibition in autism and ADHD. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 12(5), 622–631. doi:10.1017/S1355617706060814.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Millan, M. J., Agid, Y., Brüne, M., Bullmore, E. T., Carter, C. S., Clayton, N. S., et al. (2012). Cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders: Characteristics, causes and the quest for improved therapy. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 11(2), 141–168. doi:10.1038/nrd3628.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mosconi, M. W., Kay, M., D’Cruz, A.-M. M., Guter, S., Kapur, K., Macmillan, C., et al. (2010). Neurobehavioral abnormalities in first-degree relatives of individuals with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(8), 830–840. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.87.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mostert-Kerckhoffs, M. A. L., Staal, W. G., Houben, R. H., & de Jonge, M. V. (2015). Stop and change: Inhibition and flexibility skills are related to repetitive behavior in children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(10), 3148–3158. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2473-y.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Oerlemans, A. M., Hartman, C. A., de Bruijn, Y. G. E., Franke, B., Buitelaar, J. K., & Rommelse, N. N. J. (2014). Cognitive impairments are different in single-incidence and multi-incidence ADHD families. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines,. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, L. S., Burton, C. L., Dupuis, A., Shan, J., Storch, E. A., Crosbie, J., et al. (2016). The Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale: Psychometrics of a dimensional measure of obsessive-compulsive traits. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(4), 310–318.e4. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2016.01.008.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, N., & Richiardi, L. (2014). Commentary: Three worlds collide: Berkson’s bias, selection bias and collider bias. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(2), 521–524. doi:10.1093/ije/dyu025.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, J., & Palmer, P. (1999). Psychiatric disorder and the broad autism phenotype: Evidence from a family study of multiple-incidence autism families. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(4), 557–563.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Polderman, T. J. C., Hoekstra, R. A., Posthuma, D., & Larsson, H. (2014). The co-occurrence of autistic and ADHD dimensions in adults: An etiological study in 17,770 twins. Translational Psychiatry, 4(9), e435. doi:10.1038/tp.2014.84.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Polderman, T. J. C., Hoekstra, R. A., Vinkhuyzen, A. A. E., Sullivan, P. F., van der Sluis, S., & Posthuma, D. (2013). Attentional switching forms a genetic link between attention problems and autistic traits in adults. Psychological Medicine, 43(9), 1985–1996. doi:10.1017/S0033291712002863.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rijlaarsdam, J., Stevens, G. W. J. M., van der Ende, J., Hofman, A., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Verhulst, F. C., & Tiemeier, H. (2015). Prevalence of DSM-IV disorders in a population-based sample of 5- to 8-year-old children: The impact of impairment criteria. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,. doi:10.1007/s00787-015-0684-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rommelse, N. N. J., Franke, B., Geurts, H. M., Hartman, C. A., & Buitelaar, J. K. (2010). Shared heritability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 19(3), 281–295. doi:10.1007/s00787-010-0092-x.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rommelse, N. N. J., Geurts, H. M., Franke, B., Buitelaar, J. K., & Hartman, C. A. (2011). A review on cognitive and brain endophenotypes that may be common in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and facilitate the search for pleiotropic genes. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(6), 1363–1396. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.015.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ronald, A., Simonoff, E., Kuntsi, J., Asherson, P., & Plomin, R. (2008). Evidence for overlapping genetic influences on autistic and ADHD behaviours in a community twin sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 49(5), 535–542. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01857.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruzzano, L., Borsboom, D., & Geurts, H. M. (2014). Repetitive behaviors in autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder: New perspectives from a network analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2204-9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandin, S., Lichtenstein, P., Kuja-Halkola, R., Larsson, H., Hultman, C. M., & Reichenberg, A. (2014). The familial risk of autism. Jama, 311(17), 1770. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.4144.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute. (2010). SAS 9.3. Cary: SAS Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schachar, R. J., Crosbie, J., Barr, C. L., Ornstein, T. J., Kennedy, J., Malone, M., et al. (2005). Inhibition of motor responses in siblings concordant and discordant for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(6), 1076–1082. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.6.1076.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schachar, R. J., Forget-Dubois, N., Dionne, G., Boivin, M., & Robaey, P. (2011). Heritability of response inhibition in children. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 17(2), 238–247. doi:10.1017/S1355617710001463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sham, P. (1998). Statistics in human genetics. London: Arnold, Member of the Hodder Headline Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shao, Y., Cuccaro, M. L., Hauser, E. R., Raiford, K. L., Menold, M. M., Wolpert, C. M., et al. (2003). Fine mapping of autistic disorder to chromosome 15q11-q13 by use of phenotypic subtypes. American Journal of Human Genetics, 72(3), 539–548. doi:10.1086/367846.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Snoep, J. D., Morabia, A., Hernández-díaz, S., Hernán, M. A., & Vandenbroucke, J. P. (2014). Commentary: A structural approach to Berkson’s fallacy and a guide to a history of opinions about it. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(2), 515–521. doi:10.1093/ije/dyu026.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Szatmari, P., Georgiades, S., Bryson, S., Zwaigenbaum, L., Roberts, W., Mahoney, W., et al. (2006). Investigating the structure of the restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests domain of autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 47(6), 582–590. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01537.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tobin, M. D., Sheehan, N. A., Scurrah, K. J., & Burton, P. R. (2005). Adjusting for treatment effects in studies of quantitative traits: Antihypertensive therapy and systolic blood pressure. Statistics in Medicine, 24(19), 2911–2935. doi:10.1002/sim.2165.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, L., Lipszyc, J., Dupuis, A., Thayapararajah, S. W., Schachar, R., LeahLipszyc, J., et al. (2014). Response inhibition and psychopathology: A meta-analysis of go/no-go task performance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123(2), 429–439. doi:10.1037/a0036295.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zandt, F., Prior, M., & Kyrios, M. (2007). Repetitive behaviour in children with high functioning autism and obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(2), 251–259. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0158-2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from Canadian Institutes of Health Research MOP 64277 (RS), 44070 (RS), 74699 (RS, PA, JC).

Author Contributions

EvdP interpreted the data, drafted the manuscript and managed revisions of the mansucript. AD analyzed and interpreted the data. PDA and JC supervised data acquisition, and were involved in revisions of the manuscript. RJS conceptualized and designed the study, supervised data acquisition and contributed to drafting and revising of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell Schachar.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Dr. van der Plas receives funding from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the SickKids Psychiatry Endowment Fund; and reports no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Dupuis has received research funding from Institute of Educational Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Autism Speaks, and Alva Foundation; and reports no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Arnold has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, and the Ontario Research Fund; and reports no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Crosbie has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation; and reports no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. Dr. Schachar receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ontario Research Fund, the Ontario Brain Institute and the Canadian Cancer Society, and has consulted to Eli Lilly, Purdue Pharma, and Highland Therapeutics. RS holds chair positions at the Toronto Dominion Bank and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. RS has equity in BNAS, a psychological software company.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

van der Plas, E., Dupuis, A., Arnold, P. et al. Association of Autism Spectrum Disorder with Obsessive-Compulsive and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Traits and Response Inhibition in a Community Sample. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 3115–3125 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2853-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2853-y

Keywords

Navigation