Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Epilepsy and Other Neurological Diseases in the Parents of Children with Infantile Autism. A Case Control Study

  • Controlled Case Study
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry and Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In order to study the broader phenotype of infantile autism (IA) we compared the rates and types of epilepsy and other neurological diseases in the parents of 111 consecutively admitted patients with IA with a matched control group of parents of 330 children from the general population. All participants were screened through the nationwide Danish National Hospital Register (DNHR). We inquired about epilepsy and other neurological diseases during an observation period of 27 years. A similar proportion of case- and control mothers had a diagnosis of any neurological disease, 9.9% vs 10.6%. For case fathers the proportion was 5.7% vs 9.7%. No single neurological disease was significantly more frequent among parents of persons with IA. Our study lent support to the notion that epilepsy and other neurological diseases are not part of the broader IA phenotype

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. World Health Organization (1992) The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. WHO, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rutter M (2005) Autism research: lessons from the past and prospects for the future. J Autism Dev Disord 35:241–257

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Bailey A, Palferman S, Heavey L, Le Couteur A (1998) Autism: the phenotype in relatives. J Autism Dev Disord 28:369–392

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gousse V, Plumet M-H, Chabane N, Mouren-Simeoni M-S, Ferradian N, Leboyer M (2002) Fringe phenotypes in autism: a review of clinical, biochemical and cognitive studies. Eur Psychiatry 17:120–128

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Yirmiya N, Shaked M (2005) Psychiatric disorders in parents of children with autism: a meta-analysis. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 46:69–83

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Baird G, Simonoff E, Pickles A, Chandler S, Loucas T, Meldrum D, Charman T (2006) Prevalence of disorders of the autism spectrum in a population cohort of children in South Thames: the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP). Lancet 368:210–215

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Mouridsen SE, Rich B, Isager T (1999) Epilepsy in disintegrative psychosis and infantile autism: a long-term validation study. Dev Med Child Neurol 41:110–114

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Miles JH, Hadden LL, Takahashi TN, Hillman RE (2000) Head circumference is an independent clinical finding associated with autism. Am J Med Genet 95:339–350

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Veenstra-VanderWeele J, Christian SL, Cook EH (2004) Autism as a paradigmatic complex genetic disorder. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 5:379–405

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Stevenson R, Schroer R, Skinner C, Fender D, Simensen RJ (1997) Autism and macrocephaly. Lancet 349:1744–1745

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Fombonne E, Bolton P, Prior J, Jordan H, Rutter M (1997) A family study of autism: cognitive patterns and levels in parents and siblings. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 38:667–683

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Piven J, Palmer P (1997) Cognitive deficits in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 38:1011–1021

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Micali N, Chakrabarti S, Fombonne E (2004) The broad autism phenotype. Autism 8:21–37

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. World Health Organization (1978) International classification of diseases: mental disorders: glossary and guide to their classification (9th rev.). WHO, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  15. Mouridsen SE, Rich B, Isager T (1993) Parental age in infantile autism, autistic-like conditions, and borderline childhood psychosis. J Autism Dev Disord 23:387-396

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Andersen TF, Madsen M, Jørgensen J, Mellemkjoer L, Olsen JH (1999) The Danish National Hospital Register. A valuable source of data for modern health sciences. Dan Med Bull 46:263–268

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. World Health Organization (1971) International Classification of Diseases. 8th edn Sundhedsstyrelsen (National Board of Health), Copenhagen, (Danish version)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Statistix 7 (2003) Analytical Software, Tallahassee

  19. Kemper TL, Bauman ML (1998) Neuropathology of infantile autism. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 57:645–652

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Minshew NJ, Sweeney JA, Bauman ML, Webb SJ (2005) Neurologic aspects of Autism. In: Volkmar FR, Paul R, Klin A, Cohen D (eds) Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken, New Yersey, pp 473–514

    Google Scholar 

  21. Broadley SA, Deans J, Sawcer SJ, Clayton D, Compston DAS (2002) Autoimmune diseases in first-degree relatives of patients with multiple sclerosis. Brain 123:1102–1111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Mosbech J, Jørgensen J, Madsen M, Rostgaard K, Thornberg K, Poulsen TD (1995) The national patient register: evaluation of data quality (in Danish). Ugeskr Laeger 157:3741–3745

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Nickelsen TN (2002) Data validity and coverage in the Danish National Health Register (in Danish). Ugeskr Laeger 164:33–37

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by a project grant from Beatrice Haskell’s Fond. We are also grateful to Dr. Bernadette Buhl-Nielsen for linguistic revision of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen, 2400, Denmark

    Svend Erik Mouridsen

  2. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Odense University Hospital, Odense, 5000, Denmark

    Bente Rich

  3. Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Glostrup University Hospital, Glostrup, 2600, Denmark

    Torben Isager

Authors
  1. Svend Erik Mouridsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bente Rich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Torben Isager
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Svend Erik Mouridsen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mouridsen, S.E., Rich, B. & Isager, T. Epilepsy and Other Neurological Diseases in the Parents of Children with Infantile Autism. A Case Control Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 39, 1–8 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0062-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0062-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation