Siblings of Autistic Kids Have Sevenfold Higher Risk of Autism

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental and neurological disorder that affects how an individual communicates and interacts with others as well as the individual behaves and learns. Now, a new study has determined that siblings of children with autism have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with the developmental disorder.

The research was carried out by researchers from the Baby Siblings Research Consortium and the UC Davis MIND Institute.

The researchers’ objective was to determine the likelihood that a child born after an autistic child in one family would have the disorder. Huge increases in autism diagnoses, as observed in the last decade or so, led researchers to ask whether similar trends could influence autism recurrence in families, where environmental and genetic factors could play a bigger role.

For their study, the researchers collected data from 18 research sites globally, all of which were part of the Baby Siblings Research Consortium, then analyzed it. It is important to note that every site utilized evaluation tools, which are reliable for autism identification.

The researchers also gathered data on the developmental progress of each baby using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, which measures motor, language and cognitive skills. In addition, they collected crucial demographic data from each family, including data on education levels of parents, family structure and race.

The researchers discovered that roughly 20% of siblings born after an autistic child were diagnosed with autism themselves, a rate which is roughly seven times higher than that of children without siblings who have autism. This bolsters the belief that autism runs in families, with the researchers noting that the increased chances that a younger sibling would develop autism warrants developmental surveillance.

The researchers also found that the sex of the older child with autism also influenced rates of recurrence, observing that families with a son who had autism had a rate of recurrence of 22.5% while those with a daughter who had autism had a rate of 34.7%. This reinforces the notion that girls may need a higher number of environmental or genetic risk factors to develop the condition.

In addition, the researchers observed that the recurrence of autism was higher in families of POC children, in comparison to white children.

Further, the education level of mothers was discovered to be a predictor of recurrence, with children whose moms did not have a college education having a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with the developmental condition as compared to those whose moms who had higher educational attainments.

The study’s findings were published in “Pediatrics.”

The increasing prevalence of autism is creating urgency for effective treatments for this condition to become readily available. Hopefully, entities that are focused on developing therapeutics targeting autism, such as PaxMedica Inc. (OTC: PXMD), can yield positive results sooner rather than later.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to PaxMedica Inc. (NASDAQ: PXMD) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/PXMD

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