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Epilepsy Among Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Population-Based Study

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Abstract

The present population-based study examines associations between epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The cohort includes register data of 4,705 children born between 1987 and 2005 and diagnosed as cases of childhood autism, Asperger’s syndrome or pervasive developmental disorders—not otherwise specified. Each case was matched to four controls by gender, date of birth, place of birth, and residence in Finland. Epilepsy was associated with ASD regardless of the subgroup after adjusting for covariates. The associations were stronger among cases with intellectual disability, especially among females. Epilepsy’s age at onset was similar between the cases and controls regardless of the ASD subgroup. These findings emphasize the importance to examine the neurodevelopmental pathways in ASD, epilepsy and intellectual disability.

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Abbreviations

ASD:

Autism spectrum disorder

CPR:

Finnish Central Population Register

FIPS-A:

Finnish Prenatal Study of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders

FHDR:

Finnish Hospital Discharge Register

FMBR:

Finnish Medical Birth Register

ICD:

International Classification of Diseases

ID:

Intellectual disability

PDD-NOS:

Pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified

SE:

Status epilepticus

THL:

National Institute for Health and Welfare

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Finnish Epilepsy Society, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the Finnish Pediatric Research Foundation (E. Jokiranta), and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) R01ES019004 (A. Brown, PI).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Lemminkäisenkatu 3/Teutori (3rd Floor), 20014, Turku, Finland

    Elina Jokiranta, Andre Sourander, Auli Suominen & Laura Timonen-Soivio

  2. Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Elina Jokiranta, Andre Sourander, Auli Suominen & Laura Timonen-Soivio

  3. Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

    Andre Sourander & Alan S. Brown

  4. Department of Child Neurology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Laura Timonen-Soivio

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Alan S. Brown

  6. Department of Child Neurology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Matti Sillanpää

  7. Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Matti Sillanpää

Authors
  1. Elina Jokiranta
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  2. Andre Sourander
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  3. Auli Suominen
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  4. Laura Timonen-Soivio
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  5. Alan S. Brown
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  6. Matti Sillanpää
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elina Jokiranta.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 Specific diagnosis codes for epilepsy syndrome categories and status epilepticus
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Jokiranta, E., Sourander, A., Suominen, A. et al. Epilepsy Among Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Population-Based Study. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 2547–2557 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2126-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2126-6

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